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BULLETIN: NO. 3, 1907 . WHOLE NUMBER 376 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR : : BUREAU OF EDUCATION 


THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF 
| GERMANY 


SIX LECTURES BY B. MAENNEL 
Rector of Mittelschule in Halle a. d. Saale 








TRANSLATED BY FLETCHER BASCOM DRESSLAR 


Associate Professor of the Science and Art of Teaching 
in the University of California 





WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1907 












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Page 
ETS eR 5 ke Si a EY oe eS lp i 
SE NREL RAE Tails oat US) ceed OS cg a 9 
EOI I OT ESE DIE En Naf ET a er 11 
I.—HISTORICAL SKETCH. 
ee pe EERIIEDIGO MU LANNG 8 2 13 
SETS SIME LOCC DOP 8 13 
Establishment of auxiliary schools in the German industrial cities_______ 14 
Provisional establishment at Berlin-._._.___.__..__________________ 14 
The royal Prussian educational administration and the movement for 
a SCE eS IE a FEST wt | an kG 15 
Associations of coworkers; their press and literature______..._ 17 
Provision for weakly endowed children in Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, 
Italy, France, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Bel- 
gium, England, and the United States_________.________-_________ 18 
Unification and differentiation in their development_____________________ 22 
II.—REASONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AUXILIARY SCHOOLS. 
The folk school and the task demanded of it up to this time____________- 23 
The fate of those pupils who do not make progress_____________________ 24 
Hemedies proposed up to this time____-____.-_-_- 25 
How the “ dregs” of the folk school are characterized_________________- 27 
J. H. Witte opposes the establishment of special school institutions for 
BG oo SA NSIS RS ak ie Re ape eee Oa 27 
Special classes may be organized for higher schools also_______________ 30 
III.—ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 
Signs of the abnormal development of pupils___._-.-______.-_--________ 31 
How their growth and progress before school age are to be investigated__ 32 
Questionnaires for physicians and school men___________-______-_-----~_ 36 
Questionnaires in use at Frankfort on the Main, at Brussels, at Leipzig, 
RE Nt a ee ee ee ee 36 
Sketch of admission procedure at Halle___-___________-_-----_---__-___ 42 
The organization of the Mannheim schools and the auxiliary school______ 43 
| School compulsion, or parental decision___________--_--_-_-----_-__--___ 47 
| Must all auxiliary school pupils have previously spent two years uselessly 
ithe SGN MONG ae cc eomanebcwisdeenied ono oot 48 
3 


169942 


4 CONTENTS. 


IV.—THE PARENTS AND THE WHOLE ENVIRONMENT OF AUXILIARY ScHOOL 
PUPILS BEFORE AND DURING THE SCHOOL PERIOD. 





Page 
How best to obtain information concerning parents________--___________ 49 
POE NE PLT St ee ee ee 51 
What disclosures are to be obtained in this way_________________.______ 51 
mome visitation and ite value... --- ek Se 52 
Life conditions of auxiliary school pupils______.______.______-_____-____ 52 
V.—HEALTH CONDITIONS OF AUXILIARY SCHOOL PUPILS. 
Duties of the auxiliary school physician._.......2-._s.-2_____<____ 53 
. Various assistants of the auxiliary school physician __________________ 55 
Data from the annual reports of the auxiliary school physician at Halle_ 56 
The physician in his relation to principals and teachers of auxiliary 
OS 2 1 Re eae le ae Nee OL IARI RATNER 57 
Demands on the auxiliary school physician____________________________ 58 
VI.—THE PUPILS OF THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL AND THEIR CHARACTERIZATION 
Photegraphy as.a help in characterization... 2 ee 59 
Can characterization be numerically expressed?________________________ 61 
The school register of the auxiliary school at Halle__.-______--__________ 61 
Sample plans-for. characterization... ee 61 
PROCES DrODOREL oe ot eoe Hone eek encene koe Web owen Lee 70 
Lay’s individual list as consummation of a suitable plan-_______________ 70 
Representations of pupils according to this plan_______________________ 71 
The cooperation of many is needful; worth of the characterizations_____ 74 
What value does this important work of the auxiliary school have at this 
TMC 7. eek. os ie eek ewer as on ie ee ee 74 
VII.—THE BUILDING FOR THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 
The necessity of housing the auxiliary school in a building designed for 
the folk school. 5... .255-2002~ a5 aeons ae 76 
The ideal building for the auxiliary school and its equipment___________ 77 
VIII.—CLASSIFICATION OF PUPILS IN AN AUXILIARY SCHOOL, AND THE 
NUMBER IN HACH CLASS. 
The single-classed auxiliary school as a beginning of the development____. 78 
The number of pupils in the different classes___.___________-_-_-_-_-_1_____ 78 
The number of auxiliary school pupils in proportion to the population of 
Ri Mes slabs tease pe deeins mak ind see eee a cee 79 
IX.—THE DAILY PROGRAMME. 
Length of the. periods of instruction._ <<. .22.. so. cc de eee 81 
Their order -of snecession.. +2. -.-.i 2 2sscel ee tase nee eee 81 
Simultaneous instruction in the same branches in different classes______ 82 
Porenoon. nstruction.{.0 - 22 eck oe eee ee 82 





Recesses es ho oe we eles cme hes ah oh as mea Sones 83 








CONTENTS. 5 


X.—THE CURRICULUM. 





























Page 
The necessity of a plan of work for the auxiliary school ae 
enn TOA ON i new bee 83 
What will the auxiliary school as an institution accomplish?_____________ 84 
The objects of individual branches of instruction_______.______________- 84 
Sequence of the subjects ss ash tigen AE a deg gS ae Ben has Apes 85 
The difficulty of the problem of the curriculum____-_-_~_~- 85 
Sample of a plan for the first and last school years____~---__----------_-_ ae Ls 
XI.—METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 
The number of periods for individual subjects and classes ge8 3252 92 
Instruction in the lower classes must be special auxiliary school instruc- 
tion Esp i ML RE Ae ag ak Re OE 92 
Play work and work through play gn tah ry eg dn peng g Yah sryaede TU NED ea ie A ET 93 
a a cll A a lili = lel Se a aK RS 93 
cr nrnee | 1 - SIMEPUCHION Soo. ee 94. 
ee ee ek 95 
Guarding against the use of the “ concentric circle’’ method_____________ 95 
Special cultivation of the perceptions of space, time, and motion_________ 96 
The proctical drift in instruction. 2022.2... 2 97 
XII.—DISCIPLINE IN THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 
(a) The school’s care of the soul: 
The weak will of pupils and discipline in the auxiliary school___ 97 
Sunn t Get (tn OS RINDIO ee oo ot ee 98 
DN eR SD ne EE EA SDLP OM OS ERE, Ee 98 
(b) The school’s care of the body : 
Duties of physician, teachers, and parents____________________ es 99 
A ia rl lata EP aR NCR Soetic enL P a Shs Se RA a a 99 
Shall the auxiliary school be a closed institution?_______________ 100 
XIII.—PREPARATION OF AUXILIARY ScHOOL PUPILS FOR CONFIRMATION 
Are mentally-dwarfed children specially gifted religiously ?__.__.________ 101 
Separate instruction for auxiliary school pupils for confirmation_________ 101 
Who gives the instruction for confirmation?_________________--- 102 
i a tg es item alas ep we 103 
XIV.—THE COMMUNITY AND THE STATE IN THEIR RELATIONS TO THE 
AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 
Weak endowment and industrial skill_.__._._____________________________ 103 
Mental weakness and dislike for work; crime_______________________-__ 104 
What communities have done heretofore__________ --____--_---________-_ 104 


What the state yet has to do: Compulsory schooling, lengthening the 
school age, formation of continuation school classes, help in the 
selection of an occupation, care at the age for military service, 
consideration in cases before the courts____-_ ~~ hs acto hale Ss Gracnk sw haapa ba _; 104 

Private endeavors in addition to those made by the state and community. 105 


ae CONTENTS. | 


XV.—THE TEACHERS AND THE PRINCIPAL OF THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 

















Page. 
Selection of teachers from among the folk school-teachers_______________ 114 
eomirements -in ‘weneral oo eee ee tk ee ee 115 
‘Special demands on the auxiliary school-teacher_________________-______ 115 
Preparation for auxiliary school employment__________-____-____-_-___-_ 116 
‘The: principal of the auxiliary school... —-.-_-.-..- 222s ae 118 
RIN a ee er ee ee ae 118 
The woman teacher in the auxiliary school_____._________________-_____ 118 
XVI.—THE PEDAGOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 
The estimation of the abnormal among the auxiliary school pupils helps 
in the development of the normal___--_---__---_--__- 119 
Experience in the auxiliary school can be of significance to the general 
field of pedagogy___ Be aie nie as oie eects © lee 119 
The auxiliary school is the pedagogical seminary for all kinds of schools__ 119 
I Na a cs cig sins ide es bane ioe nag ee ae TE 121 
RPT RDOMAP To oe a aa ee ae a dee = amiets pk 2a eee me 125 





FE nn ie i ea pe ep ea ew ee eee 133 


LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 





DeEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 
Bureau or Enucation, 
Washington, October 12, 1907. 
Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation, prepared 


at my request by Professor Dresslar, of the University of California, 


of a recent account of the auxiliary schools (Hilfsschulen) of Ger- 
many, and to recommend its publication as an issue of the Bulletin 
of the Bureau of Education. | 

The problem of proper provision for exceptional children, and 
especially for backward children, in our great city systems of schools, 
has long been recognized as one of great importance. It has to do 
not only with the welfare of the children immediately concerned, but — 
with that of all other children in the same schools; for the necessity 
of devoting extraordinary care and attention to a few backward 
members of the class not infrequently prevents the teacher from 
giving due care and attention to the larger number of normally en- 
dowed members. For both reasons, our city school authorities within 


_ the past few years have devoted much attention to ungraded classes 


and other special provision for these exceptional children. 

It is believed that an account of a parallel movement in Germany, 
where it has had a longer history and has reached a more advanced 
organization, will be of use to those who are furthering this move- 
ment in America. No one will suppose that German experience may 
be fitted without modification into an American situation. Our peo- 
ple welcome educational suggestions from abroad as they welcome 
desirable immigrants. They recognize them as capable of naturali- 
zation, with something good to offer that we did not have before. 
In the second or third generation, if not earlier, these newcomers 
become American through and through. Having a vigorous native 
stock to begin with, we can exercise such hospitality with all freedom, 
and in it lies the hope of a great enrichment of our national life. 

The lectures of Doctor Maennel here presented in free translation, 
together with his bibliographies, constitute the best account which 
I have yet seen of this phase of German education, and as such I 
believe the publication will be widely useful in this country. 


Very respectfully, 
| Exmer Eitswortu Brown, 
Commissioner. 
The SecRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 
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NOTE BY TRANSLATOR. 





The translation of “ Vom Hilfsschulwesen ” “here presented is not a 
strictly literal one; but it is hoped that the essential facts and argu- 
ments have suffered no serious distortion nor inadequate expression. 
There are doubtless errors, but some are almost unavoidable by reason 
of the involved style of the author and the nature of the subject-matter 
under consideration. 

Special mention is due Miss Ida E. Hawes, M. A., reader in the 
department of education of the University of California, for much 
critical and willing help in making the translation. I have profited 
also by the criticism of my colleagues, Prof. Alexis F. Lange, of the 
Department of Education, and Clarence Paschall, M. A., instructor in 
the department of German, and by that of Dr. Louis R. Klemm and 
Mr. F. E. Upton, of the U. S. Bureau of Education. 

: IF’. B. Dressvar. 

BerKELey, Cau., January 24, 1907. 





a The original work is entitled “‘ Vom Hilfsschulwesen: Sechs Vortriige von Dr. 
B. Maennel, Rektor. Druck und Verlag von B. G. Teubner in Leipzig, 1905.” 
140 p. D. cloth. It forms the 73d volume of the series, “Aus Natur und Geistes- 
welt: Sammlung wissenschaftlich-gemeinverstindlicher Darstellungen.” The 
work is dedicated to W. Rein, Ph. D., Litt. D., professor of pedagogy in the 
University of Jena. 


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AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 





These lectures on auxiliary schools were delivered from the 4th 
to the 10th of August, 1904, in the Ernst Abbe Volkshaus at Jena, 


as one of the vacation courses given there. Upon invitation of the 


publishers, they are here presented to the public in an expanded form. 
May they serve to convince the reader that a due estimation of those 


_ children whom an unfortunate destiny has treated in a stepmotherly 


fashion in various ways, is not only needful for the friend of new 

methods in’ the theory and practice of child study and education, but 
also for all those who ought to stand for the welfare of the people. 

If the new helpers in counsel and action among school people, phy- 

sicians, ministers, jurists, and all friends of the people, are won over 

for the good cause, the following work will have served its purpose. 
B. MAEnNEL. 


Haute, April, 1905. 
11 








THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 





I—HISTORICAL SKETCH. 


The beginnings of auxiliary schools for defective children date 
from the middle of the past century. These beginnings were not . 
called auxiliary schools, but auxiliary or assisting classes. The first 
auxiliary class was established at Halle, in Prussian Saxony. In the 
minutes of the meeting of the school board, held on the 28th and 29th - 
of September, 1859, is found the following proposal of Mr. Haupt, 
then principal of one of the schools: * * * “to form a special 
class for defective children, now numbering 17, with possibly two 
hours for instruction” * * *. This proposal the city school ad- 
ministration carried into effect, directing a teacher from a folk school 
to give instruction for two hours daily to those children who from any 
cause were not making progress in the folk school. Quite a period of 
time passed by, however, before this new plan of instruction obtained 
daily in a single room for a class made up of children from the schools 
for the poor and from the folk schools, and finally included twenty 
hours of work per week. Still, the credit of founding the first auxil- 
iary class is to be conceded to Principal Haupt, who died in 1904, 
after long and effective service as privy councillor and school super- 
intendent at Merseburg.* | 

Meanwhile there was given to the project at Halle, which had been 
undertaken offhand and with only practical ends in view, a theoretical 
and more general foundation. K. F. Kern delivered in 1863 before 
the pedagogical society of Leipzig his lecture on the education and 
care of defective children, in which he set forth as generally desirable 
the establishment of special schools for such children of the folk 
schools as could not keep pace with other children. Th. St6tzner 
published in 1864 the first pamphlet bearing on auxiliary schools, 
giving it the title: “On schools for children of deficient capacity. 
First draft of a plan for the establishment of the same.” This little 
book of 43 pages contained, in the first and theoretical part, an urgent 
appeal to all school authorities of the larger cities to establish auxil- 
iary schools, through which deficient children, who for the most part 
later become burdensome to the community, may be developed into 





«Chemnitz followed with the establishment of her first auxiliary class in 1860. 
13 


14 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


useful citizens through suitable teachers and properly adapted 
instruction. St6dtzner established, in cooperation with Kern, in 1865, 
on the occasion of the meeting of the general German teachers’ asso- 
ciation at Leipzig, a section for pedagogical hygiene, and also in 
the same year founded a short-lived society for the advancement of 
- the education of mentally deficient children, with Hanover as a 
meeting place. : 

It is noteworthy, however, that these Kern-Stotzner suggestions 
and appeals became effective in Dresden before they did in Leipzig. 
In the year 1867 the school board of Dresden brought about the 
establishment of an auxiliary class for 16 mentally deficient children. 
During the seventies Gera and Elberfeld established their special 
classes, while Brunswick and Leipzig first instituted similar school 
organizations in 1881. In the ensuing rivalry of other municipal 
governments not to be behindhand in organizing separate auxiliary 
classes or entire auxiliary schools, the capital city of the Empire 
took no part. While entire municipal congresses, as, for example, 
that of Thuringia, held at Ilmenau in 1893, earnestly recommended 
the organization of special auxiliary classes for mentally deficient 
children, the school board at Berlin declined to maintain auxiliary 
schools. As appears from two expositions which the Zeitschrift 
fiir Schulgesundheitspflege published in 1900 and 1901, and accord- 
ing to the statements of P. v. Gizycki, of Berlin, in 1903, the estab- 
lishment of auxiliary schools was avoided, and instead auxiliary 
classes were organized in 1898 for the weak ones among the pupils 
of the common schools. To these classes those children of the com- 
mon schools are assigned who can not on account of mental or bodily 
deficiency take part with success in the regular programme of in- 
struction. The instruction in the special classes is designed to so 
advance the children that they may either become qualified for regu- 
lar school work or acquire whatever preparation they are capable 
of for the needs of later life. 

Why they could not make up their minds to establish independent 
auxiliary schools is made clear by the official report of the Berlin 
city authorities for the year 1898-99, which contains the following: 
“A considerable number of cities have sought to attain this philan- 
thropic object by the establishment of special schools (auxiliary 
schools). We have not undertaken this for two reasons: In the 
first place, the distances to school would become too great; but in 
the second place, the definitive assignment of children to such a 
school would place upon them the stamp of inferiority for all time, 
and often prematurely. We follow the plan of retaining the child 
as a pupil in his own district, of placing him for instruction in small 
classes, and of bringing him back into association with the other 
children as soon as possible. While we now begin special instruction 





HISTORICAL SKETCH. 15 


with the children of the lowest classes, our plan-is, step by step and 
according to the quality of the pupils, to add to the lowest auxiliary 
class a higher one, and so on, but always with the purpose of re- 
placing the special instruction as soon as possible by the regular.” 
No class of this kind contains more than 12 children, and the num- 
ber of periods of instruction amounts to 12 per week. Commonly 
there are put into the special classes “only such children as have 
attended the school of the district for a period of two years without 
progress. The fixed purpose of the school management of Berlin, 
i. e., the return of the children from special instruction back to the 
regular schools, has seldom been accomplished. Thus. in the year 
1903, out of the 91 special classes with 755 boys and 547 girls, only 36 
boys and 29 girls were returned to the regular schools; in consequence 
of this, practical needs alone necessitated the development of the 
system of special classes on the plan of the organized auxiliary 
schools of other German cities. Several special classes were concen- 
trated with that object in view and organized into grades, so that 
already in the year 1903, according to the statements of P. v. Gizyck1, 
all the 91 special classes were distributed among 41 schools, and it is 
to be hoped that Berlin will proceed further in this organization, 
thus abandoning a position which hitherto no other city has thought 
worthy of imitation. 

It is of note also that the royal Prussian educational danavencnt has 
not considered the above-described Berlin educational organization as 
worthy of recommendation. This central authority has, on the con- 
trary, put the stamp of its approval on that which has been built up 
at Halle and in many other German cities. Indeed, with particular 
sympathy for and regardful appreciation of what had been done, it 
formulated regulations giving shape to the system of auxiliary schools 
in Prussia, after it had realized how valuable and essential a develop- 
ment of these new schools is to the state. ‘“ Das Zentralblatt fiir die 
gesamte Unterrichtsverwaltung in Preussen” furnishes gratifying 


information concerning this movement. In the first place, a circular 


of the minister, under date of the 27th of October, 1892, criticised the 
arrangement in vogue, especially in cities with great systems of folk 
schools, of so-called “ finishing classes ” for those children who, from 
any cause, were not able to reach the standard of the folk schools. 
Next, on the 14th of November, 1892, an investigation was made of 
such classes of this kind as had already been established in the different 
provinces for children of school age not normally endowed. The 
publication of the results of this investigation was accompanied on 
June 16, 1894, by an ordinance establishing briefly nearly all those 
points needed in the further development of auxiliary schools. The 
minister already discriminates in this between those children neg- 
lected at home and those deficient in natural endowment. Only such 


16 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


of the latter as, “ during one or two years of attendance on the folk 
school, have shown that, while they are capable of instruction, they 
are not sufficiently endowed to work in cooperation with normal 
children, are particularly indicated as needing special educational 
provision. The cooperation of the physician in the assignment of 
children who should be so provided for is of special importance, 
inasmuch as physical deformities and former illnesses go hand in 
hand with backward mental development. Besides, the records 
of the development of individual children, such as have been re- 
peatedly made with discriminating carefulness, are of great value.” 
Moreover, it was further suggested that in many of the larger cities 
means are now supplied to the end that not more than 25 pupils need 
be put into one class, and by means of proper salaries, in addition to 
the regular budget, excellent teachers of both sexes from the folk 
schools can be secured for the work in the auxiliary classes. The lat- 
ter designation, viz, auxiliary classes (Hilfsklassen), for subnormally 
endowed children, “‘ seems to be regarded as the most suitable, in view 
of the feelings of the parents concerned, and to be the one most often 
used.” Finally, the minister recommends that instruction be given 
these classes for half an hour, that the standard of attainment be set 
considerably lower for all such classes than for the corresponding 
classes in the folk school, indeed, that the prescribed work for the 
highest auxiliary class should not be more difficult than that for the 
middle class of the regular folk school, and that special consideration 
be given to such subjects as will develop bodily dexterity and prac- 
tical skill. 

The decree of the Prussian minister of April 6, 1901, supplies again 
a detailed account of the then-existing school provision for subnor- 
mally endowed children of school age. It was a cause of satisfaction 
to him to know that at that time, in 42 cities of the monarchy, there 
were 91 such schools, enrolling 4,728 children in 233 classes. In 
respect to the question concerning the auxiliary school physician, the 
following declaration is made: “ The cooperation of the physician is 
indispensable in these classes. I can only express a lively wish, that 
by the time the next report is made, no auxiliary school will be found 
unprovided with the regular aid of a physician.” In regard to trans- 
ferring individual children from the auxiliary school into the folk 
school, the minister in the same report says: “ In certain places older 
children are put back into lower classes of the folk school. This ought 
to be avoided. For the difference in age between children so trans- 
ferred and their younger classmates produces the very difficulties 
which the auxiliary classes are designed to prevent, and they would 
soon go out into life from the lower classes with an education inade- 
quate to earning a livelihood.” 





HISTORICAL SKETCH. 17 


Thus far the activity of the Prussian ministry of education touching 
the development of instruction in auxiliary schools has gone. It has 
on the one hand approved of what already exists, and on the other has 
stimulated the creation of that class of schools. The teacher of a 
Prussian auxiliary school can congratulate himself on the point of 
view taken by the state authorities. Whenever a superior authority 
has faith in the insight and generosity of the larger communities, and 
in the zeal and devotion of all those who labor for the cause of aux- 
iliary schools, then this cause will make better progress than when 
individual initiative is smothered by legislative prescription. So far 
as I know, the Prussian central authority has issued no coercive and 
narrowing regulations whatsoever. At present certainly its concern 
is merely to collect information regarding the measures that have been 
taken and recommend them for general adoption if found worthy of 
approval. 

The other German states soon copied the praiseworthy example set 
by Prussia; many of them, as the kingdom of Saxony and others, 
entered simultaneously upon this work, the majority followed. The 
summary appearing in the minutes of the fourth session of the 
national association, and the proceedings relating to the foundatio® 
of auxiliary schools in Germany, published in the “ Hilfsschule,” 
give the particulars concerning the provision made by German 
municipalities for pupils of weak endowment. This provision has 
reached such a point, according to a report in the school journal 
(Schulblatt) of Saxony of January 11, 1905, that there are at this 
time in Germany 180 cities giving instruction in auxiliary schools 


- to 492 classes enrolling 5,868 boys and 4,753 girls. Including Berlin, 
_ we may say that there are in Germany 583 classes, enrolling 6,623 
_ defective boys and 5,300 defective girls. 


See) Oe a 





The formation of the principals, teachers, and promoters. of auxil- 
iary schools into associations is to be welcomed as a gratifying out- 
come of the lively interest taken in this class of schools in Germany. 
Not only did some of the pioneers in this field in 1898 form them- 


_ selves into a national association of auxiliary schools with Doctor 


Wehrhan, city superintendent of Hanover, as president, bu® the 
auxiliary school teachers of individual provinces, smaller civil divi- 


_ sions, and neighboring cities also organized themselves into associa- 


tions. In these associations the work of the auxiliary school finds a 


_ steady encouragement, and everyone who serves the cause finds therein 
incitement to futher service. 





a While this was in press a further report (Jan. 2, 1905) appeared, which 
recounts with approbation the attainment during the meanwhile of what was 
hoped for in the earlier official documents. 


14659—07——2 


18 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


Discussions on various subjects in this field are printed in the gen- 
eral pedagogical press and in publications specially devoted to aux- 
iliary school affairs. To the latter are to be added the oft-mentioned 
proceedings of the sessions of the national association, the “ Zeit- 
schrift fiir die Behandlung Schwachsinniger und Epileptischer,” the 
“ Kinderfehler ” (the organ of the movement in Germany for aux- 
iliary schools), the “ Zeitschrift fiir pidagogische Psychologie und 
Pathologie,” the collections of dissertations from the field of peda- 
gogical psychology and physiology, contributions to pedagogical 
pathology, the “ Hilfsschule,” and the newly founded “ Kos,” a 
quarterly journal for the knowledge and treatment of abnormal 
youth. Besides these, there is an extensive independent literature on 
the subject, so extensive, indeed, as to require a reliable bibliograph- 
ical guide. 

But the movement for auxiliary schools has won a foothold in other 
countries. According to the “ Zeitschrift fiir Schulgesundheitspflege,” 
the special schooling of meagerly endowed children was first con- 
sidered in Austria in 1895. At that time, in pursuance of a regulation 
of a Vienna district school board, these children were sought out in 

@he folk schools and “ burgher ” schools, and not only instructed in 

_ auxiliary classes, but a special department of instruction was organ- 
ized for defective children of school age. In the year 1902 the organ- 
ization of the association for the care of meagerly endowed children 
was planned; this union is striving to bring about a closer connection 
between the existing schools of this kind, as well as the further 
establishment of such institutions in the city, country, and community, 
and, moreover, devotes itself to the care of those dismissed from 
school and those in need of legal protection. But, on the whole, the 
Austrian school provision for deficient children is yet on a very low 
plane. ‘Austria has only half as many classes for deficient children 
as the city of Hamburg. The great majority of her abnormal chil- 
dren are without any instruction at all or remain as a burden upon 
the general folk schools.” 

According to an account in the quarterly journal “ Eos” in 1905, 
the Kingdom of Hungary is also beginning to take an interest in the 
partially abnormal child. However, since that time only one inde- 
pendent auxiliary school, with several special classes, at Budapest, 
has been reported. But it is to be hoped that the Commission for 
School Hygiene will actively engage in organizing them and that the 
admirable views urged by its chairman, Dr. A. v. Naray, of Szabé, 
concerning the special scientific training of teachers for them will 
produce their desired effect, so that a sufficient number of auxiliary 
schools for the subnormally endowed may be established in Hungary. 

In Switzerland auxiliary classes have existed since 1888. Basel 
and Bern each claim the credit for first establishing special instruc- 





‘ 
4 


HISTORICAL SKETCH. 19 


tion for subnormally endowed children in the Cantons. But they did 
not long continue alone in this work. A great number of other cities 
soon followed their.example, so that by 1903 there were as many as 
53 auxiliary classes in Switzerland, enrolling 1,096 children. In 
these classes 55 teachers (12 men, 48 women) were giving instruction. 
In order that they might secure as much uniformity as possible in 
the development of auxiliary schools, the Swiss Public Welfare So- 
ciety (Schweizerische Gemeinniitzige Gesellschaft) determined in 
1898 to establish a course of instruction for teachers of special classes. 
This plan was realized, and the course was given in the first quarter 
of the school year 1899-1900 at Zurich with marked success. 

In Italy there are at the present time no regular auxiliary classes. 
In several of the larger cities of the Kingdom, however, the backward 
pupils of the elementary schools are grouped together under the 
instruction of a woman teacher. The national association for the 
care of weak-minded children, which was organized in 1898, had in 
mind, among other things, to urge that instruction in auxiliary classes 
be given in connection with the regular elementary schools. All 
pupils who were not too far below the normal in mental ability were 
to have in these classes instruction within their power of comprehen- 
sion. According to K. Richter’s account, there was founded at Rome 
in the year 1900 a kind of teachers’ seminary, where teachers of both 
sexes might be made familiar with the treatment of defectives and 
with the means to serve and care for them. Independent of the 
above-mentioned national association, an asylum school for poor chil- 
dren of weak minds was started at Rome in 1899 by Dr. Sante de 
Sanctis, a university professor. This school offers a day home to 
about 40 pupils. The preceptress, who is an elementary school- 
teacher, works under the direction of the founder, a prominent psy- 
chiatrist. A teacher for training the children to speak normally, one 
for physical training, and one for music cooperate with her in this 
work. However, from the report of this institution made on April 
16, 1903, and also from a letter written by the amiable and enthusiastic 
director concerning the management, it is learned that no programme 
of studies is regularly carried out. Since the so-called medico-peda- 
gogical method prevails in this asylum school, more weight is given 
to medical and general educational considerations in conducting it 
than to formal school instruction. It is not in place here to pass 
judgment on the scope of the work of Prof. Sante de Sanctis, also 
described by K. Richter, or upon its practicability and results. It 
may be said in passing that as compulsory school attendance obtains 
only up to the tenth year of age, it is plain that it will require much 
persistent labor before even the general aims of the national associa- 
tion, the aims had in view by the philanthropic and intellectually 
superior circles in Italy, can be even approximately attained. 


20 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


In Franee they are not yet fully convinced of the great value of a 
general treatment for weakly endowed children. To be sure, accord- 
ing to Dr. J. Morin in the Parisian journal, Foi et Vie, of November 
16, 1904, Séguin, J. Bost, and Bourneville have made investigations, 
respectively, upon the mental, moral, and social capabilities of defec- 
tives; but aside from the reports on the medico-pedagogical method 
which is employed at Bicétre, near Paris, I know nothing of schools 
for weak-minded children in France. The complaint of the author 
of the essay “ Pour les enfants anormaux ” in the “ Manuel général de 
V’instruction primaire ” for 1904 is therefore warranted when he says: 
“The most autocratically ruled States of Europe have made instruc- 
tion democratic, and have opened schools for all their subjects, in 
which nervous, deaf and dumb, or idiotic, as well as healthy children, 
can be instructed. With us the opposite is the case; while our 
scholars were the first to point out the means to alleviate the natural 
defects of mankind, the teaching of abnormals has become so excelu- 
sive that the families concerned are often compelled to permit their 
children to grow up as chance wills. Oh, you poor creatures, pre- 
destined to remain unarmed in the struggle for existence.” 

Russia, Germany’s eastern neighbor, also knows nothing of auxil- 
iary classes. In St. Petersburg there has been, so far as can be 
learned, since 1882 a medico-educational institution managed by 
Doctor Maljarewski. Here are received idiots and feebly endowed 
children from wealthy circles. Another institution at St. Petersburg, 
maintained by the religious “ Order of the Mother of God ” and aided 
by the empress dowager, receives, it is said, epileptic and idiotic 
children from homes of poverty, and has been giving to them since 
1903 school instruction also. 

Richer and more positive, comparatively speaking, are the reports 
from Sweden.According to the Swedish Teachers’ Journal of 
_December, 1904 (Die schwedische Lehrerzeitung), Stockholm will 
establish this year auxiliary classes in the folk schools. The folk 
school teachers of the Swedish capital have, since 1900 and 1901, 
directed the attention of the school authorities to those “ abnormal 
children who are hindered in their development,” and pointed out the 
necessary methods of instruction for such children. At the same time 
it was shown by Dr. G. Hellstrom that of the 25,089 pupils of the folk 
schools in Stockholm, 87, or 0.35 per cent, were foolish, and 478, or 
1.88 per cent, were backward. The superior authorities of the munici- 
pal folk schools have determined, in cooperation with the folk school 
teachers, to establish during the next year a number of auxiliary 
classes for backward children, in each of which the number of children 
shall not exceed 12. The children must have attended school from two 
to six terms (“Termine”) without making progress, and can be 
admitted only after a medical examination. Instruction, which is 





HISTORICAL SKETCH. 91 


not to exceed four hours daily, is to be imparted by women teachers 
who volunteer to do this work. 

According to private information, auxiliary schools have been 
established after the fashion of German models at Christiania, Ber- 
gen, and Trondhjem, in Norway. Copenhagen in Denmark has had 
an auxiliary school since 1900. We learn from the account of a 
journey made by Schenk in Holland and Belgium in 1900, and 
published in the “ Kinderfehler,” of the auxiliary school system 
in these countries. He explains to the reader how actively, especially 
on the part of physicians, they are meeting the educational needs of 
their abnormal children. 

Similar things can‘be said of England. Here the auxiliary school 
system has been developed almost exactly according to the German 
model. A so-called “ permissive act ” of the year 1899. puts the matter 
in the hands of communities, who at their pleasure do or do not adopt 
the statutory regulations for auxiliary school instruction. The adop- 
tion of the provisions of the law makes it binding upon a city “ to 
place the auxiliary schools founded by it under the supervision of 
State authorities, but it thereby obtains a share in State aid, paid 
according to the report of the inspector.” One of the most important 
provisions of the law is the rule for compulsory school attendance up 
to the sixteenth year of age.t The English auxiliary schools have 
from one to three classes; women teachers give instruction in them. 
The first school for the instruction of subnormally endowed children 
was opened in London in the year 1892. Their number so increased 
that in 1903 there were 60 schools with 3,063 pupils. Nevertheless 
this number is not considered at all adequate; for within a short time 
almost as many more schools will be established, so that more than 
5,000 children will be enrolled. But London, with perhaps 9,000 or 
_ 10,000 defective children to care for, is not alone in taking advantage 
of the permissive act; a great number of cities are following the lead 
set by the capital city in the care of mental defectives, and in the year 
1903 at Manchester an auxiliary school association was formed after 
the German type, to whose work belongs also the care of physically 
defective children. 

A plan for auxiliary schools in the United States was formulated 
about the same time that one was in England.’ Up to the year 1894, 
mentally backward children in the regular public school classes were 
treated just as children spoiled by neglect. Both classes were sent 
to so-called disciplinary schools. But when the character of minor 





@The legal requirements for schools for defective and epileptic children in 
Hngland provide that “no child may be admitted at less than 7 years of age, or 
retained after reaching the age of 16.” This is permissive rather than compul- 
sory education in our sense of the term.—TRANSLATOR. 


99 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


mental abnormalities was made known, at least to some degree, 
through investigations in child study, public and private classes were 
established for backward children in connection with the regular 
public schools. There were in the United States last year, according 
to private information, 27 State and 28 private schools of this nature. 
According to the official advance sheets [of the Report of the Com- 
missioner of Education] from Washington, there were, in 1903, 20 
State schools with 277 teachers and 12,079 pupils enrolled, and 12 
private institutions, with 62 teachers and 495 pupils. The great 
majority of the pupils are put into schools of three classes, each of 
which is limited to 15 pupils. The teachers are, for the most part, 
women; for among the 277 teachers in the State schools there are 
only 61 men. The superintendents of these schools are in the main 
physicians and make annual reports to the Commissioner of Educa- 
tion at Washington. In these reports, which are published in advance 
sheets, the reader may find many valuable observations and much 
practical information. 

Finally, it should be mentioned that news has reached us from 
Australia of an auxiliary school movement there. According to 
private information, special classes havé existed in Sydney and Mel- 
bourne for several years. 

The foregoing review of the widening movement for auxiliary 
es makes it clear that the idea has taken firm hold, not as the 

“work of individual Hotspurs,” but much more as a ‘Stone wide 
call to duty of all those circles to which the culture of mankind makes 
special and genuine appeal. Many a different conception with 
respect to the tasks and their performance exists. Still, there is 
much unanimity in those countries we have mentioned. The greater 
cities, often the capitals of smaller or greater States, with their 
industrial population, form the point of attack and the place for 
the development of auxiliary schools. Now and then a private sani- 
tarium which has the care of the abnormal children of well-to-do 
parents becomes the pattern for school arrangements for the poorest 
classes. The tendency everywhere is to organize the single classes 
into schools, either in connection with the public schools or in com- 
plete independence. Often these newest forms of schools are in- 
cluded in the highest school administration of the land in order to 
guarantee a uniform development. The desire for uniformity pre- 
vails over all, but not to such an extent as to crush individual differ- 
ences, provided they are traditionally or scientifically grounded. 

This freedom extends itself to the purposes, to the methods of 
organization, to the colaborers, and not least of all, to the measures 
employed. Indeed, the views concerning the children who are to 
attend are willingly granted the widest scope. Hence, the weak- 
minded pupils are not always clearly distinguished from the meagerly 


rf 








REASONS FOR THEIR ESTABLISHMENT. 23 


endowed. The consequence of this vague distinction is usually the 
prevalence of idiotic children in the auxiliary schools and the repres- 
sion of a rational didactic method in favor of a medico-pedagogical 
method. In Germany, the native land of institutions for meagerly 
endowed pupils, we hold firmly, and as I believe, rightly so, to the 
didactic principle, and preserve the character of a school, and yet 
with all due regard to the results of medical investigations. Expe- 
rience teaches that the school administrations of different countries” 
follow the example set by Germany and acknowledge her laudable 
guidance in the auxiliary school movement. | 





II—REASONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AUXIL- 
IARY SCHOOLS. 


Before the movement began which has just been mentioned it was 
the task of the folk school to take charge of and advance all pupils, 
even those who from the first were incapable of advancement. It 
was taken as a matter of course, unworthy of special thought, that 
that institution of learning which gave to the children the minimum 
amount of that knowledge which a child of the lowest classes must 
have, should also take care of such pupils as could not keep pace at all 
with their fellows: Perhaps this matter-of-course attitude was, on the 
- one hand, the expression of a certain helplessness in the face of many 
inexplicable psychical phenomena of childhood, but, on the other 
hand, it was the manifestation of an opinion which even yet is not 
entirely suppressed, that the folk school must not form too compre- 
hensive ideas of the minimum of elementary education; it must not 
advance too quickly in the mastering of the subjects of instruction 
and disregard the average endowment of the pupils; so it will do no 
harm if it is checked in its upward striving by some proper ballast. 
Finally, the schoolman has also contributed his share that no segre- 
gation in the folk school should be made. Impressed by the omnipo- 
tence of the catechetical art of instruction and by the marvelous 
power of discipline in the school, he would gladly believe that he 
could always successfully influence in their intellectual development 
all the pupils intrusted to him. 

For these ideas suggested—ideas which nowadays may seem exag- 
gerated—we can find, however, a real background when we think of 
the school conditions of the not very distant past. We need only to 
carry our thoughts back to the public school conditions under which 
we lived in the seventies, and even in the eighties, of the last century. 

The teacher of the primary class in the folk school has seventy or 
more pupils assigned to him. Their parents do not consider it neces- 


CC 


24 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


sary to give him any helpful information regarding certain peculiari- — 
ties of their little ones. For the most part they are happy to know 
the little tormentors are in more or less capable hands. Now begins 
the teacher’s hard work. As far as he can, he tries to be of equal sery- 
ice to all the children of his class, both as regards development and 
instruction. As the teacher of a lower class is generally a beginner 
in his art, a long time passes before his eyes are opened to the con- 
duct of some of his pupils. In the normal school, to be sure, he was 
told not to treat all children alike; yet as a normal school student he 
carried away the cheerful impression into his practical work that 
instruction possessing logical sequence and clearness of thought and 
consistent and inexorable discipline can be simply. all-powerful in 
the expansion and unfolding of little—yes, even the smallest—minds. 

Soon, however, difficulties arose in his honest effort to satisfy 
the demands of the prescribed course of study. Not only were there 
children in the class who failed entirely to comprehend or repeat 
the work, but gradually he found children from whom he could 
not draw a single word. Other pupils, again, could not submit to 
his discipline, and by their restlessness brought the whole class 
into disorder. As a true follower of Pestalozzi, the teacher gave 
himself up to these pupils, who were so much below the desired 
average of the class, and. tried to induce them to cooperate in the 
class work; but even when his demands on them were but small, 
his indulgence and patience were not rewarded in the least. Then 
he lost his patience occasionally and became a stern judge of every 
misbehavior and failure to do the work. 

These judging scenes in the class, which came oftener and oftener, 
and were a continual source of excitement and annoyance for the 
teacher, afforded also a series of deep sorrows for the pupils in 
question. They do not understand why the teacher is so strict 
with them. They only feel that their comrades are not only indif- 
ferent to their troubles, but even like to make fun of them. As a 
result their sensitive natures harden and their weakened minds 
are more and more stunted. Indifferently they sit there during 
lessons, filled with the eager desire to stay far away from school. 
If up to this time the teacher lost patience only now and again, 
as he tried to benefit these pupils who hindered his progress so 
greatly, now his whole interest in them disappears once for all. 
Next he takes care that the pupils who sit near them are removed 
from the sphere of their unwholesome influence. Then he leaves 
them to themselves, and thus makes them entirely passive listeners. 

But now comes the time for promotions. How happy the teacher 
is to take his capable pupils on to the higher class and leave behind 
those who only annoyed him. With the recommendation “ irre- 
claimable dregs” and “troublesome ballast,” they are handed over 











REASONS FOR THEIR ESTABLISHMENT. 25 


to his successor, and a new year of troubles begins for pupils and 
teacher. Indeed, shall the pupils who possibly even in the second 
year do not reach the class standard continually remain in this one 
class? The view that the perpetual sameness of the subjects must at 
last deaden even the little intellect left leads to the final decision 
that at least the oldest members of the “ dregs,” on account of their 
age, should be allowed to go on to a higher class. It is thought that 
the stimulus of new subjects may arouse new life in those~minds 
which gradually have become indifferent. Unfortunately the result 
does not come up to the expectation. The scholars marked out in 
their class by the difference of age must put up with much rudeness 
from their fellows, and possibly often hear from the teacher himself 
that nothing in the world can be done with them. So it is no wonder 
if all self-respect finally dies out; they have no more confidence in 
themselves, and are still more in thé way in the school. 

With each succeeding year the teacher wishes more earnestly to get 
rid of those pupils who so entirely mar the favorable impression 
which his class might make, but ever and again must he suppress 
his desire; for only two possible ways are open to the folk ‘school 
to rid itself of burdensome and absolutely incapable pupils. In one 
case it is the reformatory school, which opens its doors, however, only 
to incorrigible vagabonds; in the other, an institution for idiots 
can take in a child ihicls is a common danger on account of its 
entire helplessness or its imbecility. Whoever has tried to bring 
either proposal before the authorities knows how hard it is to place 
a child in either ome of these institutions. 

Taking for granted, then, that among the unpromoted pupils, who 
in the course af time are pushed into the middle classes, only a very 
small number are fit subjects for the above-mentioned institutions, 
what is to become of the others, who are more numerous and whom 
the folk school dare not and can not’shut out? Since it has no right 
to expel a child on account of lack of natural endowment, the arrival 
of confirmation time must be awaited, when his dismissal from school 
will be authorized. 

Now, just imagine eight such lost years—years of unsatisfactory 
work and annoyance for the teacher; years of handicapping and mis- 
leading for the pupil of average ability, and, finally, years of stunting 
of body and soul for the mentally deficient. Should not a change 
have taken place early in order to prevent all the annoyance, all the 
disappointments, and all the bodily as well as spiritual harm, for the 
latter especially will stand in the way of the neglected pupil as he goes 
out into life? 

And is it an honor for the honest work of the folk school when 
pupils who have been confirmed in church are dismissed from its 
lower and middle classes? You will answer, “If nowadays such 


96 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


things should happen in the folk school the inspectors of the city 


school administration have probably not been able to effect what 
proper earlier help would surely have brought about. They should 
have proceeded as follows: The manufacturing places, which are here 
specially in question, should build public schoolhouses for a small 
number of classes in districts of equal size, in order to prevent free 
wandering from school to school among the pupils; the number of 
pupils in the classes should be lowered from 70 to 50 at the highest; 
the school principals are to be told to dispense with all unnecessary 
material in the curriculum; the educative influence of the personality 
of a good teacher is not to be broken up or lost by a yearly change, or 
even by departmental teaching in the different classes.” 

Any public school teacher or principal who has watched the rapid 
growth of an industrial town will have to recognize the great 
demands on the unselfishness of the city authorities and the best 
insight of the city school directors into that which is for the good of 
the school. What inspectors, school administrators, and argument 
could do at the time has been done in the city communities. - And yet 
the goal is not reached, namely, that each year all the pupils should 
be advanced equally, relatively speaking, in their education. 

In a German educational paper of October 9, 1904 (Die Allge- 
meine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung), Mr. Wagner quotes a notice from the 
Christian World, of Vienna, which may serve here as proof of this: 
“ Just visit once the folk schools in the so-called workingmens’ dis- 
tricts, in Favoriten and Ottakring, and see how many children of the 
first or second class of the folk school have almost completed the 
time of their compulsory attendance. Regarding how many children 
is it written in the register: ‘ Promoted to next class only on account 
of his age and size!’ How many children leave school without 
having mastered even the elements of reading and writing! ” 

Mr. Wagner gives another similar statement from a daily news- 
paper, which pictures the conditions in London. It is as follows: 

Judge (to a 15-year-old boy who is physically extraordinarily well developed) : 
“Why don’t you work?” Boy: “I can’t.” Mother: ‘‘ He will be 15 this year 
and can leave school.” Judge to boy: “In which class were you?” Boy: “In 
the first’? (which corresponds to our lowest). Judge: “ But that is the infant 
class. Say, my boy, how many weeks are there in a year?” Boy: “I don’t 
know.” Judge: “Did no one ever tell you?” Boy: “No.” Judge: “How 
many days are there in a week?” Boy: “I don’t know.” Mother: “In cer- 
tain lines he is not very talented, but in others he is just that much cleverer. 
Yesterday morning he took a shilling out of his brother’s pocket and spent two 


hours eating and drinking in the public house. He won’t work; he only wants 
to eat and drink.” 


Even if nowadays in Germany children are no longer sent out into 
life from the lowest class, there are unfortunately still enough who 





ee 


REASONS FOR THEIR ESTABLISHMENT. 27 


leave with the very imperfect education of the third school grade, 
having remained as the dregs of the school for eight years. 

An analysis of the “ dregs” which never advance properly in the 
school would give tis perhaps the following groups of pupils: 

1. Children who have difficulties of speech, are weak sighted, hard 
of hearing, or epileptic. Some years there will be strikingly few of 
these, others again, more. How they can hinder the teacher’s work 
ought to be well enough known. And yet even these pupils have a 
right to harmonious development in the school. For them, therefore, 
a modern hygienic or curative pedagogy would make special pro- 
vision in the form of courses for correcting their speech, or form 
special classes for those hard of hearing, the weak sighted, and the 
epileptic. This kind of separate treatment can really show great 
results, but, unfortunately, in many a community the establishment 
of such special classes is a wish which for many reasons can not be 
realized. 

2. Probably the pupils who have constantly lagged behind in the 

lower classes of the folk school have healthy organs of sense and 
speech, but they are not in a position to properly work over the 
stimuli of the outer world into higher psychical products. Besides 
this, many a time this working over process goes on so slowly that a 
continuous forcing to strained attention, an endless drill in the folk 
school class, really harm such a child. But would it therefore be 
justifiable to take away from him all the influence of proper school 
training ? BG: | 
‘\ Decades passed in the folk school before the view became general, 
first, that there can really be children who, as a result of their 
abnormal psychical powers, prove the powerlessness of all didactic 
art, and then that their condition should be the cause of the establish- 
ment of a school specially adapted to their needs.-. Next, critical 
observers among practical schoolmen awakened wider interest in 
the various types established by such observations. Then the re- 
search work of the exact psychologist and the psychiatrist began, 
always helped on by the individual observer, and gradually developed 
a more general insight into the abnormal development of the child, 
a development which demands special treatment at home and in 
school. 

The presentation of the preceding course of development in the 
matter of auxiliary schools has been able to show considerable una- 
nimity in this insight. As far as I know, only one expression of the 
other side of the question has been made public. J. H. Witte ascribes 
the establishment of auxiliary schools to the influence of an almost 
obtrusive activity on the part of certain hot-heads and their clever 
scheming. That is a startling statement. However, Witte really 
does not wish to startle. He gives reasons for his assertion. He 


98 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


thinks that the auxiliary schools withdraw the mentally deficient 
pupils from the helpful influence of the more gifted, and that the 
effort to benefit a class made up only of the deficients can never be 
successful. Rather let the disobedient pupils be put in among the 
obedient, one-third weak-minded pupils among two-thirds strong. 

This old school recipe is certainly often applied by individualizing 
teachers when they are dealing with pupils who are often inattentive, 
frivolous at times, and now and then indolent. If, however, even 
with the very best intentions, the pupil can not be attentive at all, if 
he is continually forced by bodily deficiencies to remain mentally 
indolent, if, further, his moral balance remains unsteady on account 
of many illnesses, is it not better to bring about a separation as soon 
as possible? The so-called better environment in the class can never 
spur him on to anything better. To see oneself surpassed by those 
_ about one embitters the mind, and this, during and after the gloomy 
school days, may hasten on all kinds of moral defects, often to the 
detriment of human society. 

How different, on the other hand, is the mental attitude of a child 
trained in an auxiliary class! He is enlivened, stimulated, his whole 
emotional attitude is changed. Now he soon notices that he makes 
a certain progress with other fellow-pupils, that the teacher is con- 
cerned with him as with all the others; now he is also withdrawn 
from the scorn of his classmates, because the teacher’s harsh words 
and corporal punishment have been changed into kindly treatment. 
‘Besides, the instruction is now suited to his mental horizon, to his 
field of view, so that rays of increasing enlightenment sometimes fall 
into the gloomy twilight of his mind. Of course this mental progress 
will not be seen at once. Time is needed for him to accustom himself 
to new conditions, for a weakened or abnormal mind needs a longer 
time and often, too, more powerful supports-than a normal one. 
But time will, finally, with the aid of the inspiriting consciousness of ~ 
being able to’'do something, make firm the unstable moral balance, so 
that it is a real philanthropic duty to separate the mentally weak 
pupils from the mentally strong. And when Witte calls “ the coup- 
ling together of the weak: with the weak” a measure of superior 
strength imposed upon burdensome weakness, he is overlooking the 
fact that a child gets along best in that circle whose members are 
nearest to his own mental condition. Thus, pedagogy makes no 
confession of failure in speaking of separating the dull pupils from 
the more gifted and placing them in a special class or school. 

Witte advances further an objection of a hygienic nature against 
the establishment of an auxiliary school. “The weak-minded, being 
sickly and physically incapable of resisting disease, naturally become 
sources of epidemics.” But this contention is also unsound. To begin 
with, at the suggestion of the State authorities, every auxiliary school 


- 


REASONS FOR THEIR ESTABLISHMENT. ae 


in Prussia is under constant medical supervision; in the next place, the 
teachers are gradually so taught by practical experience that they are 
finally able, working hand in hand with the physicians, to avoid the 
spread of diseases; moreover, whoever has observed health conditions 
among auxiliary aioe pupils for a number of years, can prove that 
they are attacked by children’s diseases much less than folk school 
pupils. The reason for this lies in the fact that these pupils Have 
already had nearly all the infectious diseases before coming to the 
auxiliary school, and are now suffering from the results of these. 
So these special thisée can not very well be the points of i 
and the sources of epidemic diseases. 

Finally, Witte is not afraid to accuse the champions of the auxil- 
iary schools of materialistic tendencies. According to him, “ they 
fall for the most part victims to the superficial advocates of scien- 
tific medical theories which are still unproved, and of the so-called 
experimental psychology, according to which it is alleged that the 
mental life is entirely dependent upon the physical, the spiritual 
existence upon the bodily—a view which is as sad as’it is false.” - 

This is not the place to discuss the well-known “ ignoramus,” the 
sad avowal that the investigator may be able to recognize individ- 
ual expressions and workings of the spiritual life, and occasionally 
to prove as well their dependence upon physical conditions, but that 
it will always be impossible for him to arrive at a clear idea of the 
unity of the mental and the physical. The practical schoolman 
knows very well this limitation, and of course does not fall into a 
materialistic channel when he asserts: “This child shows certain 
mental peculiarities as a result of disease, which he either inherited 
or contracted after birth, and does not make progress in the folk 
school. But he is not responsible for his weak condition. He can 
not make any intellectual progress in the ordinary school because his 
organism is more or less abnormal.” Let it be granted that the 
brain processes give no direct clew as to how the spiritual life, as such, 
comes to exist, and let a divine endowment be assumed to these proc- 
esses; psychiatry and experimental psychology can unfortunately 
reveal plainly enough at times that this divine gift in man is so 
small, and in addition is so held within bodily limits, that a disre- 
gard or even a contempt for the physical may be fatal to this 
endowment. This view no practical schoolman can repudiate. Yet 
he by no means needs to confess himself a disciple of the so-called 
“medical pedagogy,” which takes most delight in proving an inner 
_ economic activity of the brain and regards the whole convex cerebral 
_ surface as a deposit of moving memory pictures. 

It must indeed be recognized, says L. Striimpell, that medical 
_ therapeutics has placed in a clear light the dependence of a normal 
_ development of the bodily life upon a rightly directed psychic life, 


30 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


and has pointed to the manifold injuries to the body resulting from a 
false pedagogical practice. But therapeutics has its limits. Above 
all, it can not be the guardian of the whole realm of pedagogy; it 
must hold itself aloof from speculations which lack the basis of 
experience. And experience regarding the development of the bodily 
and spiritual life of the child, for example, is comparatively recent, 
and demands so much deepening and broadening that purely mate- 
rialistic speculations are attended with risk. 

But upon such data, which we may rightly call superficial, we do 

not base the necessity for the auxiliary school. Rather it will help 
to understand the child with his psychical deficiencies and good qual- 
ities on a basis of observation already ‘authenticated. For this pur- 
pose the teacher uses the demonstrable results of child psychology, 
and works especially in the field of so-called psychopathic deficiency 
in childhood. This idea, used first by Koch and later by Triiper, 
‘marks the great intervening realm between the sickly and the healthy 
mind, which is as rich in its phenomena as it is difficult to recognize. 
We shall not characterize them here. It is enough to have noted 
their existence, which, with all due consideration of the physical 
basis, can not make apparent the dependence of the spiritual being 
upon the physical. As a result, the odium of materialism can never 
be attached to the champions of the auxiliary school, and the basis 
for the necessity of its establishment can not be called uncertain or 
superficial. 

The occasion for the eka nlishanant of auxiliary schools is there- 
fore given, in ‘spite of Witte, by the real—not imaginary—existence 
of pupils who can not be advanced in the folk school. These chil- 
dren are perhaps not simply dull, but those who, for various reasons, 
do not think, feel, and will normally, and so are incapable of follow- 
ing the regular school work. For them, therefore, the common 
school—the ordinary school—is not the place which can awaken or 
improve their weak or abnormal psychical qualities. On-the con- 
trary, the regular school, with its order and activity, will be a place 
of torture for them, which suppresses still more the little good that 
remains in their weakened minds, and this to the detriment of 
society, members of which they will be later on. For all larger 
districts, in which a number of such children are found, it is there- 
fore an absolute necessity to have a class for their special aid. 

‘But is the folk school the only-one having pupils who, for various 
reasons, can not in any WaX, be advanced ? « The teachers in the mid- 
dle schools, the preparatory schools, as well as‘in the higher schools 
for boys and girls, will certainly be able to think of individual pupils 
who might far better have stayed away from these schools. In his 
school investigations, Leubuscher found two mentally abnormal 
among 165 pupils at the Meininger Realgymnasium. Certainly this 


ADMISSION PROCEDURE. ee 


one secondary school is not distinguished from all others in this 
regard. Laquer says even that the defectives among the well-to-do 
classes are, comparatively speaking, not less numerous than those 
from the working classes. At first glance this seems exaggerated. 
But whoever knows. Benda’s estimates and has read Altenburg’s 
splendid exposition of the art of psychological observation, will have 
to agree with Laquer. eet 

Now, the secondary school has an advantage over the folk shel, \ 
and in this case it is an enviable one, namely, the privilege of diss | 
missing unfit pupils. Strangely enough, it seldom uses this privi- 
lege. ‘This is the case because the school directors seldom succeed 
in making well-educated people of high standing in society under- 
stand that their deficient children suffer much from the work which 
the school must demand and from the external organization of school 
life. They torture the child with private lessons, or give him over 
to pedagogical bunglers, before they realize that the work of the 
higher school can not be accomplished and mastered by the untal- 
ented, poorly endowed children of rich parents. For such children 
special schools or special institutions, as, for example, Triiper’s 
“ Erziehungsheim,” are more appropriate than the regular school. 





III—ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 


We have previously shown that, to the detriment of the school, 
children are frequently kept behind, some in the first year, others in 
the second or third year, who might better be placed in an auxiliary 
class or school. We have now these questions to answer: When is 
the proper time to remove these children from the school, and how 
can we be at all sure that no pupil is unjustly placed in the auxiliary 
school ? 

In the development of our pupils, which is often spasmodic and 
sometimes very one-sided, it may happen that the teacher of the reg- 
ular school, allowing himself to be guided by the mood of the mo- 
ment, may without reflection deny that this or that pupil has any 
talent whatever, and declare him a fit candidate for the auxiliary 
school. Or it can easily happen that by his unfortunate home condi- 
tions, his being overburdened with manual labor outside of school 
hours, and by irregular attendance at school, which is perhaps a re- 
sult of frequent change of residence on the part of his parents, a 
child may be mentally injured to such an extent that the teacher 
becomes impatient and is soon ready to propose that he be placed in a 
special class. Finally, it is possible in individual cases that, owing to 
_ repeated instances of punishment, the pupil develops a certain de- 
- fiance which for ihe time being prevents all mental progress, and the 


32 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


teacher develops an aversion which keeps alive in him the desire to 
bring about the removal of such elements from the school. Are the 
authorities, then, to consider the proposals in all the cases mentioned ? 
But the fate of the pupils must not be dependent on the moods or 
prejudices of the class teacher. Therefore the school principal 
should advise every teacher who makes these proposals to spend more 
time in wider observation. Sometimes, especially with children in 
intermediate grades, it is helpful to transfer them to another teacher. 
A change of classes often has the same effect as a change of air on a 
sick person. Everything must be tried in order to prevent the dis- 
missal from the public school, as incapable of learning, of any child 
who can to any extent be benefited there. To do this the teacher of 
the regular school must be more psychologically trained than form- 
erly, that he may be more an educator than an instructor.t And in 
truth he must have developed not only a profound understanding of 
normal children and a deep interest in their treatment, but he must 
also show at least a general ‘acquaintance with the development of 
the child soul, which so easily becomes abnormal. Naturally, in 
thinking of the physical and mental good of the individual pupil, 
the teacher must not lose sight of the whole class; but, at least in the 
case of the most conspicuous pupils in his class, he has to give valid 
reasons for his proposal of separation which are based upon con- 
siderable observation. In other words, the folk-school teacher, as 
well as every other teacher, must be able to detect readily the signs of 
mental deficiency in children. 

At present there is much discussion, to be te semakaliien the 
proper representation of the conception “ weak-mindedness ” 
(Schwachsinn), and regarding the classification of its various phe- 
nomena; every investigator in this field tries to find other words 
when he wishes to express the idea of weak-mindedness. In the 
practical conduct of the public school, however, we are not con- 
cerned with scientific definitions and distinctions, but with the 
gradual understanding of the deviations of a child nature from its 
normal path of development. And the school, with its systematic 
activity, offers abundant and undoubtedly the best opportunity for 
the determination of the spiritual condition of the child. 

Many a child afflicted from birth may develop at home pretty 
much as other children, except perhaps more slowly, but at school 
it shows very strikingly that it is not able to meet the high demands 
which, for example, the first two school years make upon every child. 
Either it appears to be indifferent during the lessons (apathetic), or 
apparently keenly interested, but without any deep mental participa- 





aThis recommendation has recently again been made by G. Wanke, in his 
Psychiatrie und Pidagogik (Wiesbaden, Bergmann, 1905). ni Al 





ee 





ADMISSION PROCEDURE. . 33 


tion in them (erethistic). In the one case the child gets tired very 
easily, and his eyes grow dull, because he can not grasp all the con- 
crete details of the material of instruction, and because the reflec- 
tion necessary for the comprehension of the subject presented is 
wearisome. By an examination the teacher can very clearly see the 
narrow range of his knowledge, and also that his ideas are discon- 
nected and lack all systematic arrangement. As a result, his memory 


"seems to be a mere sieve, his judgments are never decided, and his 


conceptions are never fully formed. In the other case, the pupil is 
apparently very much interested in the subject presented by the 
teacher, is probably very attentive, but his attention is soon dis- 
tracted. Any object at all which appeals to his senses can not be 
overlooked by him, but must be observed carefully. Continuous at- 
tention is for him an utter impossibility. Even his tendency to 
motor activity prevents him from carrying out any possible resolu- 
tion he may have made to be attentive. Such a pupil simply can not 
sit still; in spite of all the teacher’s commands he has to move his 
head, hands, and feet and would like best of all to run about the 
class room. 

Another case may come to the notice of the observant teacher. 
Sometimes a child appears apathetic only because a defect of speech 
has made him silent. Perhaps during the first weeks at school he 
tried to take part in the lessons, but he was made conscious of his 
deficiency by the teacher’s criticisms and still more by his school- 
mates’ teasing, and now he can not be persuaded to reveal by speech 
what all his brooding means. When the defects of the child’s organs 
of speech are easily seen, his unwillingness to speak in the presence 
of others is readily explained. But a divided palate, an abnormally 
developed uvula, or an abnormal tongue are not so easily discovered 
as being the causes of faulty speech. And when we think how nu- 
merous are the difficulties of speech which come under the general 
heads of stammering or stuttering, or when finally we consider how 
often speech, and at the same time thought, are checked by patho- 
logical conditions in the air passages, we open up fields which show 
the teacher how hard it is to discover all the phases of the abnormal 
child mind. 

A further difficulty arises, however, when the talkative child con- 
fronts the one who to all appearances is dumb. Talkativeness, like 
restlessness of body, may be construed as a deviation from the normal 
child development. Sometimes during the lesson the child who is 


afflicted with too great talkativeness answers correctly. The teacher 


is then inclined to declare that this pupil, who is apparently so well 
developed as far as speech is concerned, is mentally capable. But 
gradually the senselessness of his talk is revealed; for the most dif- 
14659—07——3 


34 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


ferent problems he has often only the one solution, and for one ques- 

,tion, the wording of which is but slightly varied, he has at least one 
hundred answers ready. These last are quite without meaning and 
resemble the so-called reflex actions, which must be performed with- 
out the cooperation of higher mental activity. 

As a solution of the difficulties which are constantly arising, it 
has been thought that certain typical signs can be pointed to whereby 
fit candidates for an auxiliary school, or weak-minded persons in 
general, can be detected. So in various writings we find references 
to external marks of abnormal child nature which are easy to recog- 
nize. According to their representations, nature has given the ob- 
server distinct signs by which to fathom the inner man. This view 
is confirmed, too, by experience. Now and then among deficient 
children we come across some who have very large, almost square 
heads, or very small, pointed ones. Now we see skulls which are 
unsymmetrical, again we meet the so-called Mongolian type, and the 
frog or the bird face. Since, however, other experiences may teach 
the opposite, we have recently given up the theory of the so-called 
signs of degeneration. They are not to be taken as sure signs of 
mental deficiency; at most they can only serve in the way of con- 
firmation. 

It is very clear that in the teacher’s observations lack of intelligence 
will play a great part. But it is not the only standard by which to 
judge abnormal psychical development in a child. Generally, in 
addition to mental deficiencies there is a social and ethical defect, 
and perhaps also a defect on the side of the emotions. The abnormal 
child is not only mentally restricted, he is perverse in morals, hostile 
to society, and either rough and coarse or all too gentle. He violates 
the laws of good manners in every possible way, likes to do those 
things which most children hate, and sometimes gives himself up to 
those sexual errors which finally influence his health. Not until urged - 
will he take part in play with children of his own age; he would 
rather brood in corners than play of his own free will. And if he 
does stay with his playmates he often gets into a passion; either he 
is irritable or a nuisance on account of over-sensitiveness. In these 
abnormal pupils the teacher may also discover a tendency to damage 
things, and if circumstances are favorable this may turn to the tor- 
menting of animals and of human beings. They like to seize and 
destroy what others cherish, and show malicious joy at the pain of 
animals or the sufferings of their fellows. Further, the abnormal 
pupil sometimes causes his parents and the whole school much anxiety 
by wandering off; often without cause, often from fear of punish- 
ment, he leaves the neighborhood, roams about in districts unfamiliar 
to him, and passes the night in the most unheard-of places. After 
some time he returns in a most deplorable condition and is usually 








ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 35 


unable to give any reason for his wanderings. If all these deeds and 
improprieties of which this child is guilty are followed by warnings 
and punishments, the teacher soon sees the uselessness of trying to 
influence him. Neither words nor blows have any educative result; 
even enticements and rewards fail. 

But in thus characterizing the ethiéal and-emotional defects, we 
must not neglect to consider the extent of their connection withthe 
mental defects—for how many children, especially boys at the “ awk- 
ward age” and even girls in the years of development, deviate from 
the normal in the development of their emotions and their will, and 
yet are not subjects for an auxiliary school. For this deviation, 
however, they are not always to blame; faulty training, unfortunate 
home conditions, and unsuitable surroundings in general, often bring 
about the child’s demoralization rather than any pathological con- 
dition. Moral defects in themselves, therefore, must not be taken 
to indicate pathological conditions. Neglected children, as such, 
do not then belong in the auxiliary school, or it would soon take the 
form of an institution for the care and reformation of children, with 
continually changing classes, while it should be, on the contrary, a 
school tending to become, so to speak, a pedagogical sanitarium. 

In the foregoing we have merely suggested the teacher’s difficulty 
in furnishing convincing evidence regarding the deficiencies and 
peculiarities in the whole being of a pupil whom he contemplates 
transferring from the folk school to an auxiliary school. Many 
phenomena and manifestations seem to the teacher to be infallible 
proofs of abnormality, while other observations cause him to hesitate. 
And so, many a pupil becomes a psychological puzzle to him; but 
should he continue to be so? The teacher must seek the solution 
of this puzzle, and that by finding out the particulars of the develop- 
ment of the pupil in question before he entered the school. Perhaps 
the home may furnish the teacher a sufficient explanation of the 
child’s strange conduct. 

To gain this end he may take one of two ways. Either the mother 
is asked to come to the school and give an explanation, or the 
teacher seeks out the pupil in the parent’s home. The first way is of 
course the easier, but also the less satisfactory; for it isn’t everyone’s 
disposition to enter the house of the poorest of the poor. Even if the 
visitor does not become a real martyr to this worthy cause, it requires 
at any rate great self-command to call, possibly at houses of ill- 
repute, and converse with people who are often coarse and vulgar. 
For these reasons it is very doubtful whether a woman teacher can 
or will decide to take this means. And yet the teacher must find out 
definitely all about the pupil if he wishes to have valid grounds 
for his proposal to place the child in an auxiliary school. But if you 
_ depend upon the information given by the mother in the school, you 


36 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


have by no means any guaranty of its truth. For at first we scarcely 
realize how poverty, which often rules most cruelly in the families of 
the candidates for the auxiliary school, causes them to deceive and lie, 
and also how a certain pride and shame easily lead to false state- 
ments. If therefore visits to the home are impossible, and the 
mother’s reports do not seem trustworthy, other sources must be 
sought. The sisters of charity, the overseers of the poor, and the 
information bureaus of the city poor and of the police administra- 
tion must be called on for aid. The testimony of several trustworthy 
and experienced persons can to some extent help to complete the 
teacher’s own judgments. 

But compliance with this demand must always be upheld, namely: 
the teacher must judge for himself, and confirm by visits to the home, 
under what conditions the proposed auxiliary school pupil lives, what 
diseases he has had to combat, and what bodily injuries have infiu- 
enced his abnormal development. In many cases the teacher’s visits 
to the parent’s home will confirm what he already suspected; in other 
cases he will discover entirely new signs, in the fateful stamp which 
has influenced the course of the pupil’s childhood before his school 
days. 

- Realizing that it is exceptionally hard for a folk school teacher to 
follow all the paths leading to adequate research regarding child- 
nature, and definitely to answer the question, “ What must we do in 
order to avoid unjustly transferring a pupil to the auxiliary school ?” 
question sheets, observation blanks, forms of proposal, and admission 
blanks, have been prepared. They are to guide the teacher in his com- 
prehensive study of the candidates for the auxiliary school. These 
question sheets are very variously arranged; almost every school uses 
a different one. The explanation of this diversity may lie not only 
in the individual opinions of the author, but also in the guiding prin- 
_ eiple. The question is, “ Shall the doctor or the teacher plan such a 
sheet?” 'The physician, as is easily seen, will naturally consider some 
questions pertinent which the school man will not. As proof of this, 
some typical sheets are here given. 


A.—Plan of the question sheet used at Frankfort on the Main. 








Easter, 19__. 
Resident > seco he neni cece ge cee eee one aa 
Date oar birthed, 226. 2 eet hy ee ewe So A a 
Pupil, No. .---- of class $M a eee school year. 
OTE ano kee teens pence VHGA EOD oo Seip ae ip seen een raat ok 
Home relations (name of guardian, if any) -----------------_------__-_~- 
Number of the mother’s miscarriages__-_--~-~ Number of children________ 


Birth: Legitimate or ‘iliegitimdtec223 Ae Sa ee ae 
Inherited taint (diseases of the paréfits) 0 -U0_ 2b. i Se a ae ee 
Mental disorders—lung troubles—dipsomania—crime—suicide—syphilis____ 





ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 37 


Brothers and sisters: Whether weak-minded, silly, epileptic, ete-_-____________ 
Previous illnesses: Especially convulsions, paralysis, St. Vitus’s dance, rickets, 
bladder trouble, fainting spells, etc___.-..---_-- 
Defective senses : Cross-eyed — blind — deaf — lame — difficulties of speech, ete. 
Spiritual qualities: False — thievish — shy -— restless — irritable—unsociable — 
dull—tearful, etc 27 ple aig leks Meat ead Sa aac ia Ba vt Aen aed ee 
Opinions of teachers regarding industry, progress, formation of ideas (ideas of 
unser yeeuria, Writite, €tC) 28 eh Se ee eee 
Was the child in any previous year recommended to the auxiliary school? 











B.—List of candidates proposed for the auxiliary school at Frankfort on the 
Main, also the personal sheet of the auxiliary school. 














Se ee Sk are is ERE hig Se eee ee 
ee et OO Oe ii eee Pus beim pe. 
Religion Peepers ests ie SMEs) Jie Pit afer sar 
Son. sii: 
Daughter. hor: Sue oe Other OF MUATaIAn } oo 
esetee EC 3 a eines Sena » StORpyUeelt Ja osicW 
ror. Of Trent Of 101 to UL ek 
Digi 4 itt, he Ce See school, member of_______________ class, since____....__- 
Previously Nh AEM rico oe talus a Ser a tdi ipa ine en pie os Sina aid sees ine 
Recommended to the auxiliary school (date)____-________-_______-__-_________- 
ene 7 POU@RCCO G00 ee ee eu ea 
- Date of entrance to auxiliary school_______-__-----§- inielasé:) in 
Date of dismissal from the auxiliary school__.___._--_-------_-__-_---L----~-- 
teres. 2 be itr oe be ued SW bd ee ee 
NIN errata or Sink a anhiet a wads eke Ate ln Dee atl EE UB A 


INFORMATION REGARDING PARENTS, CONDITION OF THE CHILD WHILE ATTENDING THE 
REGULAR SCHOOL, AT THE TIME OF HIS ENTRANCE TO THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL, AND 
WHILE IN ATTENDANCE AT THIS SCHOOL FROM THE FIRST TO SIXTH YBAR. 


1. Information regarding parents: 


ntranaes Or THOPMIMALC. 06. ooo Lo oe eee ee 
teaerer O16 Vine to ADO Ot ROU soe oe eins asia 
Is mother still living?______________- Avent dewtini).aci: spare ie le 
ESN EEE ETS AOR SCE oe MA ary 





2. Regarding brothers and sisters: 

Are they feebly endowed? Pupils of the auxiliary school? Epileptic? 
moeeete 7s nd? Deaf? co oce esluec Suck sme SU ee ee 
Number of brothers and sisters living________ ons git Bait. Coes 
Number of brothers and sisters dead_______-__- Ages atdeath.: 2 22S 22. 
eS DD erg ities EE Set 0 BE one os oD os. 2 oh Pa On ee RP a 
Number of miscarriages of the mother___--_-__.+-----..----------------- 

3. Home conditions: Poverty, poor dwelling, broken family life, incompetency 
of father or mother to gain a livelihood. __ 2-22-2242 ------- 

4. Inherited tendencies: Lung troubles, dipsomania, mental disorders, crime, 
Mrermurtiave Of ceintives, suleide. 22006 BSL Sel oe. Sees aee 


38 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


5. Diseases which the candidate has had: Measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, 
whooping cough, meningitis, rheumatism, paralysis, convulsions, St. 
Vitus’s dance, fainting spells, bladder troubles, rickets, severe head 
wounds, accidents 


6. Development: Learned to talk at 
hee years of age. 

7. Diseases from which he still suffers: Headache, cough, indigestion, swell- 
ing of the glands, cutaneous eruptions, bed-wetting, convulsions 

8. Hearing: Hard of hearing, festering of the ears_._...  ——s—‘—CS 

9. Sight: Short-sighted, weak-sighted, cross-eyed, inflammation of the eyes, 
color blindness, quivering of the eyes = eS 

10. Speech organs and speech: Stuttering, stammering, lisping, malformation of 
the jawbone, irregular teeth, tonsils, thick tongue____.._....___ 3 

11. Respiration: Sleeps with mouth open, difficulty in pete 3 through nos- 
trils, shortness of breath... 222 So. 

12. Physical deformities: Lameness, curvature, rupture, shape of head, left 
handed, chicken breasted__.__________ 

13. Physical conditions (see certificate of health). 

14, Character and disposition: Serious, peevish, listless, sensitive, tearful, shy, 
timid, cheerful, passionate, companionable, cruel (tortures animals), dis- 
turbs the classes, restless, untidy, mendacious, thievish, excitable, slow, 
superficial, quarrelsome =. - a 

15. Mental condition: 

Memory :<(a) To. general ooo ee ee = 
(b) In particular directions (number, form, words, enon, 

Cire 2 |) pen ecn 2 Mahe Sea iN See oe PRN, ac! 

Power of thinking, attention, power of apprehension, observation, me- 
chanical adaptation (poetry, melody, multiplication table), impression 
made by mental effort, retention of ideas, formation of concepts (vague), 
power of judgment (speed, accuracy), imagination (excitable) _...______ 

16. Notes and counsel of the physician (see accompanying certificate) : 

To be received in the auxiliary school______________________ 
To be excused. from certain subjects... 24. 50a eee ae 








a aa ee ee ee 

















17. Do the parents wish the child to enter the auxiliary school?_____ Yes or No. 
18. Result of the examination regarding his entrance into the auxiliary 
OTRO N oo nsec seen edema aes ers ec 





DEVELOPMENT OF THN CHILD IN KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL IN THE REGULAR SCHOOL IN SUM- 
MER AND WINTER, IN THD AUXILIARY SCHOOL FROM THE FIRST TO SIXTH YHAR. 


1. Religion: Idea, interest, knowledge and retention of passages from the 

Bible, stories, song eee er eee ee aes ae 

2. Object lessons: Knowledge of things, interest in his observations, fables____ 
38. German: 

(a) Reading: Printed and written alphabet, connecting of sounds, sylla- 
bles, and words, sentence reading, reading of connected pieces, Ger- 
man and Roman type, mechanical skill, intelligent reading, repro- 
duction, typical mistakes in reading, tone of voice in speaking, 
slurring of sounds and syllables 222 sc ease cock eee 

(b) Spelling: Tracing of letters or words, copying, analysis of words, 
dictation, ‘typical erroracieicesct each ues es ae ee ee 

4, Arithmetic: Series of numbers, how large numbers he can use, the primary 
operations, mechanical skill, oral and written arithmetic, Beer for num- 

bers, ability to apply rules to problems___-_----------- 2 








. Industry and attention: Home work, additional occupations 


ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 39 


Writing: Small letters or capitals, regularity of their formation 


Se ae ee ee 


. Singing: Hearing, sense of rhythm, memory for music, fondness for music__ 


Gymnastics: Strength, power of endurance, sociability in playing 
History : Interest in persons and events and memory for them______________ 
Geography : Sense of locality, fundamental principles, map reading 


. Natural history: Behavior when looking at objects, relation between struc- 


ture; and: function: 6.22. si eet ery £3 





. Drawing: Net-line and free-hand drawing, exercises in measuring with the 


EEE i Ge Ee WAN pase NEES Rie DALES OCT Tce eh TS 
Beane sore: Kind) ability;: interest -.... 2. .2.22..-.225 UL. 
Conduct (legitimate reproofs or punishments) 





SS SS NSS ga lg AO re EEE ee pele EEE ERE Ee one, 2s ea 
NAR ss es Cie a eae he 
(ec) On account of illness 


C.—Question sheet of the Brussels auxiliary school. 


Reasons for the examination of the child: 


1. Inadequate or abnormal mental development. 
2. Continual and notorious bad conduct. Inattention. 
3. Three years behind in school training. 

4, Serious difficulties of speech. 


Documents which must accompany this form: 


1. Report of child’s school career. 
2. Report regarding causes which led to the proposal that he be admitted. 
This report must contain as detailed answers as possible to the follow- 
ing questions: 
(a) Are the parents in good health? 
What is the state of their morals? 
Do they drink? 
(6) Has the child been ill? . 
Has he shown no imperfection in the activity of his senses (as 
sight, hearing, feeling, muscle sense) ? 
Is he given to self-abuse? 
In what branch of study has the child made greatest progress? 
Is he attentive? idle? rude? bold? saucy? 
Is his ill behavior continual or periodic? 
Does he steal? lie? Is he boisterous? 
(c) To what intellectual or educative treatment has the child been 
subjected ? 


D.—Question sheet of the Leipzig school for mental defectives. 


(A) 1. How many children are there in the school who are evidently weak- 


minded? 

2. How many children attend the school the first year and are not to be 
promoted from the lowest class at Easter? 

8. How many children attend school the second year even, and can not be 
promoted at Easter from the lowest class? 

4. How many still older children are there who are still in the lower 
classes? 

5. How many of the children under 2, 3, and 4 are weak-minded? 





«From W. Reinke (op. cit.). 


40 , THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


(B) In judging weak-minded children, the following points of view are the prin- — 
cipal ones to keep in mind: 

1. Can the child distinguish right from left and make movements in accord- 
ance with this distinction? 

’ Does he know the colors? 

2. What is the condition of the development of his power of speech? Can 
he articulate all sounds, connect the sounds properly in words, speak 
distinctly and connectedly, repeat a short sentence correctly, or does 
he leave out whole words in speaking a sentence, is the order of 
words in the sentence confused? Does he stammer or stutter? 

8. Can he distinguish objects and representations of objects, and what 
ones? Can he say something about objects which are close at hand, 
follow a simple conversation, and also give information about things 
which are not present? 

4, What knowledge has he gained at school? Does he know the alphabet; 
can he read words, does he know the letters of the different alphabets? 
Can he write letters and words correctly from memory, or can he only 
copy these mechanically, or can he not do even this correctly? How far 
can he count forward? Can he also count backward, and from 
what number? How many columns of figures can he add, how many 
subtract? Has he any idea of multiplication and division? To what 
number can he work out simple arithmetical problems in his head? 
To what number with the help of his fingers? 

5. In disposition is he docile or stubborn and obstinate, good or ill natured, 
quiet or lively, companionable or unsociable? 


E.—Admission form of the auxiliary school at Plauen. 


It is proposed that ~__--------- , No. ---- of main register, pupil of ____ school, 
be received into the auxiliary school. 
N. B.—Given name to be underlined. 





Date and viace When and _ | How long has | Howmany times; Name and posi- | Exact statement 
sai f birth where did he | he been in this} has he failed to | tion of father, | of his last place of 
* : enter school? class? be promoted? guardian. residence. 























Religion : 
Of the: father nee a 
Of the mother __________-- 
Of the child 
Vaccination: scar —...-...~- 





N. B.—Underline appropriate descriptive words and add anything important. 


General impression: Mentally weak, very weak, imbecile. Dull, bright. 

Disposition: Cheerful, tearful, changeable. 

Character: Obliging, true, honest, kind, confidential, bold, eager, bashful, spite- 
ful, disobedient, untruthful, dishonest, unsociable, timorous, idle, 
impudent, inclined to vagrancy. 

Interest: Is it easy or difficult to excite? Does he show it strongly, weakly, 

or does it vary? 
Does his interest in one object last for too long, too short a time? 
What line does he prefer? ~-----~-- What does he neglect? ________ 
Uninterested, distracted. 
Apprehension: Quick, transient, uncertain, slow, vague, definite. 





ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 41 


Memory: Normal, weak, very weak. Intelligent, unintelligent observation. 
Quick, slow in recalling ideas. Frequent confusion. 
Speech: Normal, slow, rapid. Talks much, little, not at all, sensibly, unin- 
telligently. Stammers, stutters. 
Development: Child began.to talk at ____ years of age; to walk at ____ years. 
Movements: Gait __---- ; arm and hand movement __--~-- ; too hurried, clumsy ; 
awkward, destin. left-handed. 
Skill gained at school (N. B.—Underline with black ink the letters he can read 
in print; in red those which he can write) : —— 
1. Reading: 
2. Writing: aouei—! mnr—h ch j—v f—sss sch—a 6 ti—b d g—p t k— 
x z—qu ng—ai iu au—ei eu—y—O O A A—G Q—S Sch RN 
-M—V W P Z U—T J—K F—L B—H E—D—X Y C. 
38. Arithmetic: 
How far can he count forward? ~__--------~- 
From what number can he count backward without leaving out a 
giarie tinmber? 2.0L. 


From what number on can he subtract 1? _------_--_- 
What ideas of number has he? a ere ois 


Parents’ home: 
Who looks after the child from day to day? —-------_.-- 


What was its nature? ____---~_--_- 
What ‘care is given to the child’s body? ~----------- 
What to his education? 





PHYSICAL, 
Number of absences __---- . Secused | .2.. ; unexcused ____-- ; in how many 
years of school? __-----_. 
Kept out of school on account of __----__-------~-~-- an especially long time, 
WOU Fen ce weeks. 


The child can not follow the instruction on account of: Frequent headaches, 
nausea, bowel trouble, general languor (falls asleep in class), sleeplessness, 
epileptic fits, dizziness, involuntary twitching of the muscles. 

Shortsighted, cross-eyed, hard of hearing, chronic inflammation of the eyes, 
running from the ears (right, left), chronic nasal catarrh, swollen tonsils. 
His meager ability can be traced back to: Inheritance, hard birth, a fall, fright, 

illness. He has formerly suffered from: Brain disease, rachitis, eclampsia, 
epileptic fits, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, inflammation of the lungs, 
whooping cough, persistent skin eruptions. 





The child is the first, last, _____--_ th; a twin. 

I aa os brothers and sisters still living ------ showed themselves weakly 
endowed at school; —____- not yet old enough to leave school; are behind 
their classes. Of —___-- who have died —_--__ were untalented; —_---- 
mentally diseased. They died at the age of ~-_--- from 

Of parents and other blood relatives ~----_~- are not gifted; -----_- suffer from 
tuberculosis of —_____ ; from syphilis _----- ; from mental derangement 


peiasenalie be ; from alcoholism ____-- 
wae Of tie auove mental Uerecta — 8 2 a ee eee 
De ete oe cee te 
Director Glass TedORer oso! 2 bs oe See 
[School stamp. ] 








42 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


F.—Admission blank of the auxiliary school at Halle. 














No. _--- in main register. 
It is proposed that ______ SOS ae be received into the city 
auxiliary school. 
eas Se at as legitimate child of {sei : 
a ~~) still living. 
In the care of , residence 
Baptized_______ , hot baptized_______. Vaccinated______ , hot vaccinated______- 
Mice at school, ______ years in the primary class, and ______ years in 
class next to the last. 
Up to the present, ______ years in the ______ class of the{rimary fect 
primary 


under ‘claas teacher. a ee a! 
Remarks of the present school principal___________._____ | 
Opinion of the principal and the physician of the auxiliary school______________ 
Decision of the city school superintendent regarding final admission 














(N. B.—Questions 1 to 3 following are to be answered after visiting the home. Ques- 
tions 4 and 5 are to be answered at three different periods in the year.. On completing 
each series of observations, the answers are to be presented for examination to the school 
principal.) 


Points of view from which the observations are to be made: 
1. What has been learned regarding the parents? (Conditions of life, what 


care do they take of the child?______. No. of visits to the home__-__-. ) 
2. What reports do the parents give regarding the child? (Illnesses, acci- 
Ment S 2... NO, of Visiter} =. ) : 


3. What physical defects are noticeable, especially in the organs of sense 
and in the movements of the muscles? 








To last week 
Observations. before sum- 


To Decem-| To Febru- 
mer holidays. ber 1. 


ary 1. 





4. Has the mental development in general been unsatisfactory ?. 
(a) Speech fluent or defective. ................2....-..2----- 

(b) Participation and interest in the lessons .............. 
Weakness or unsteadiness of attention...............- 
Weakness Of IDRInGER 220027 es iih el Fe eee 

(c) Strikingly good or bad characteristics...............-.- 
How does school work affect him? ...................- 

5. Condition of his school work...................2.-----eeeee- 
In what subjects is he backward?...................-.--.-- 
How far has he gone in arithmetic, reading, and writing?. - 














A comparison of these sheets brings to our notice the following 
facts: Since in the first place schoolmen have to answer these 
printed questions, they must be principally of a psychological and 
pedagogical nature. At the same time the questions must be so 
stated that they will cause repeated observations to be made, and 
also so that they may be answered in the briefest possible way. 
Finally, on looking them over, not only the one who has answered 
them, but any reader, should be enabled to get at a glance a view of 
the development of the child before his school years. 

The question sheet used at Halle, which has been worked out by 
the auxiliary school staff and myself, and which has been tested for 
several years, is put into the hands of the teachers of the lowest 





ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 43 


classes in the primary and intermediate schools at the beginning of 
each school year. Then, too, their observations must begin. If the 
child does not seem normal to the teacher, data regarding him are 
to be entered upon the front page. Questions 1 to 3, on the inside 
page, are to be answered only after visits to the iemé: and 4 and 5 
at three different periods; the entries are to be presented to the 
school principal for examination at the close of each series of obser- 
vations. Shortly before Easter the admission applications of all the 
schools concerned which have been approved by the school princi- 
pals are submitted to the director of the city school administration, 
who in special cases seeks the opinion of the physician and the prin- 
cipal of the auxiliary school, and only then delivers the final decision 
regarding the admission of a child into the auxiliary school. Such 
a method of procedure, though it may perhaps seem formal, com- 
pels careful and repeated observation of a pupil who appears to be 
abnormal, and generally it prevents his overhasty dismissal from 
the regular school. 

Ordinarily about 50 application forms are presented every year to 
the head of the city school administration for his decision. Of these, 
after consultation with the principal of the auxiliary school, gener- 
ally 20° or 30 are sent back with the decision “ to remain in the folk 
school,” or “to be proposed again next year.” Forms with such 
remarks are naturally not weleomed by the folk school teacher. He 
must continue to put up patiently with the pupil who is such a burden 
to him, and of whom the school principal, too, perhaps, wanted to 
rid him. 

Granted that 20 to 30 application forms come back to the different 
school principals from the president of the school administration, 
with the certificate of transferal to the auxiliary school, the pupils 
so marked are removed from their respective schools at Easter, and 
toward the end of March are given over to the principal of the aux- 
iliary school. On the basis of the forms submitted, a preliminary 
assignment of the children to the classes of the auxiliary school may 
be made, so that they may find their places after the Easter holidays. 

Having thus described the customary admission procedure at 
Halle, we must now note the usual practice in the folk schools of 
Mannheim. This practice must be mentioned here, because—as I 
know from my own observation—the admission of candidates pro- 
ceeds under even more difficult circumstances than at Halle. 

In the year 1899 the city school superintendent of Mannheim, 
Doctor Sickinger, made an attempt to classify the pupils of the folk 
school according to their abilities, and to use the great number of 
parallel classes of each grade in forming instruction groups having 
each an individual character. As a result, in the school as a whole, 


44 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


there are different instruction routes, having different plans of studies. 
In fact, three kinds of classes may be distinguished, as follows: 

1. Classes for pupils capable of doing normal work, who at the 
end of seven school years would be able to reach the highest class, 
and who, form the advanced department having the regular eight 
grades. 

2. For those children who, as a result of inadequate ability, can 
not. be promoted to the next class, of which they would form the 
“dregs” and “ ballast,” a special division of the school, aiming to do 
simpler work, is organized. 

This division of the school, with its special classes, which are also 
called “repeating” or “furthering” classes, naturally does not let its 
pupils advance as far as the normal pupils; for it a special goal must 
be set, when its work shall be declared finished. Therefore the last 
years of these special classes are called “finishing” classes, too. In 
them (in the lower grades it would still be possible for pupils to return 
to the regular classes) the teacher who is inclined to make psycho- 
logical observations finds abundant opportunity to individualize. 
For the classes are but small (30), and “successive” instruction in the 
section allows the teacher really to know his pupil and to reawaken in 
him his desire for work, which may almost have disappeared. For this 
purpose (i. e., successive instruction) the pupils are divided into two 
sections; in one the weaker pupils are placed, in the other the 
stronger; part of their lessons are given in common, part separately. 
So section A and section B receive thirteen hours’ instruction in 
common (8 religion + 7 German -+ 2 arithmetic + 1 singing); sec- 
tion A has 64 hours (44 German + 2 arithmetic) of separate instruc- 
tion, and section B a similar amount. One section has a lesson the 
first hour three days a week, the other section on the other three days. 
The teacher of the regular soo division does not transfer his pupils 
to these special classes, which help individualization so much, until 
he has filled out a transfer card of the following form: 


FOLK SCHOOL AT MANNHEIM-—SPECIAL CLASSES. 





Educational progress of the child in the system of 
special classes. 














When ? Whither ? 
School year. | Date. | School di) Special TRANSFER CARD. 
For transferal to a .... class. 
ee eh es ae eee eae 
Bie a eo rs ee ee 
Sane agian eae seerananen maar IAE ESP oo gh on 
Woe een ee ee 

















s ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 45 


1. Personal history of the child. 


MEN gs gp ata i be Aa A are gs ie Sa eS ee eh i i 
I li a es ad Te Sean I eg te eine a, Sige when cae oe i wes DLL 
ia a ced a ee aE nn Re ed bel creas eee Meee. 
Religion Soe A yee scarp ae Sogn, saat Seer no he Se and pero ete ROR 
Seer amere OF CUUIOISn. 
Position of father or guardian________-___--_ ae, Sa ete a SEG 
ee ete ge, as a Tea pes pa eee Ae gS) eee ee fo Oe 





Did it come from some other place? (from what school, class, and in what school 
EE Bite. Cee Ses dd iG ee ee Ue) ue 9 
Was its attendance in any Gepee tere ©. Why 0)... oo. een aa 


4. The child’s backwardness. 


In what classes did it remain more than one year? (State briefly in what sub- 
mere Wie VHEATISLACLOLY.) 2 


5. Reason for its backwardness. 


6. Former diseases and accidents. 


Fits? Dizziness? St. Vitus’s dance? Brain troubles? Head injuries? Rickets? 
Diphtheria? Measles? Scarlet fever? Whooping cough? etec_---_---------- 


7. Physical anomalies and signs of degeneration. 


Signs of paralysis? Headache? Speech? Hearing? Eyesight? Organs of 
smell? Swelling of glands? Trembling and twitching of the muscles? Curva- 
ture of the spine? Malformation of the limbs? Chronic diseases? etc__--~- 


8. Psychical peculiarities. 


Cleanly? Attentive? Good willed? Sociable? Mendacious? Thievish? Dull? 
Excitable? Irritable? Sensitive? Passionate? Whimsical? Bashful? 
Lazy? Imaginative? Forgetful? Superficial? Mean? ete a = foie 





9. Special inclinations and abilities. 


Singing? Writing? Drawing? Arithmetic? Hand work? ete.--.-----~---. 


46 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS ‘OF GERMANY. 


10. Grade of school work reached. 




















1 2 3 4 5. 6 7 8 
School year .....-..... 19— 19— 19— to 19— 19— 19— 19— 
CEMOR oo ate ect acc esas 

TORO OR oc ve veneie = 





Number of pupils..... 





HOCEhHOn .. 2s. sec. 2 oes 





THGHBEY 22.22 5.52.2.2. 





OMG UCT wooo sei ca 






































«The grade which the child reached in all his school work is to be entered here. This 
is therefore a certificate for the past school years as well as for the future. For the 


past years the entry is made at the time of the child’s transfer to the special class; for - 


the future, at the conclusion of the school year. Should he return to a regular class or 
leave the school, a note is to be made of his leaving certificate; if, on the contrary, he 
merely changes to another special class, no entry is made to that effect. 


3. If it happens that a child in the lower “ repeating ” classes can 
not be benefited at all because he is very meagerly endowed mentally, 
he is transferred, with the cooperation of the school physician, to an 
auxiliary school class, of which in the school year 1904-5 there were 
four in existence, with a total of 67 children. From this small num- 
ber of classes we may conclude that the Mannheim method of pro- 
cedure leaves a considerable number of pupils in the repeating classes 
in the regular school who at Halle, and probably in other cities, would 
have been transferred to the auxiliary schools without hesitation. 

The auxiliary school classes at Mannheim, therefore, are attended 
by children who show very inadequate mental development; and 
yet we must not assert that idiots are sent there. It seems to me 
that the school organization at Mannheim tends to change the whole 
procedure of admission to the auxiliary school classes which up to 
this time has been customary. Perhaps the Mannheim method is 
the first to take into the auxiliary school only those pupils who 
belong exclusively there, and the pursuance of it has the same result 
as formerly in the case of institutions for idiots; for when the aux- 
iliary schools were founded the institutions for idiots lost (to those 
schools) a number of their inmates who were capable of being edu- 
cated—those who were not the worst, not to call them “ show pupils.” 
Now, according to the Mannheim plan, the auxiliary schools are not 
to admit those pupils who, to be sure, are inferior, but whose minds, 
which up to this time have been benumbed by all kinds of limita- 
tions, can still be awakened by individual treatment according to 








ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 47 


psychological principles. Under this treatment they are still to be 
helped to accomplish something in a simplified folk school. The 
future will prove whether the Mannheim course of procedure will 
have a lasting influence upon that which has existed up to the pres- 
ent. At any rate, the question is worthy of our most careful con- 
sideration, for admission to the auxiliary school can scarcely be too 
carefully guarded. Just as we must avoid having children-sent to 
it who are suffering from a higher grade of imbecility or from idivey, 
who are blind, deaf-mutes, or morally depraved, so we must also 
refuse to admit those who have been kept back only by reason of 
unfavorable school conditions or on account of illness, and yet are 
not to be called mentally subnormal. 

Let, then, admission be according to the plan used either at Halle 
or at Mannheim; well for those children. set apart if, while still at 
the regular school, they did not frequently hear it said, “ Oh, in the 
auxiliary school, with the stupid children, you don’t have to learn 
anything!” If the auxiliary school and its work have hitherto been 
treated with scorn, if even school people regard it as a school Sibe- 
ria, we can understand the disfavor with which it is viewed by the 
children and their parents. Though many parents have a very good 
understanding of what the auxiliary school may mean for their chil- 
dren, as well as for themselves, yet we can not expect parents in gen- 
eral to appreciate its value. Therefore we need not be surprised if 
many of them object to their children being placed in the auxiliary 
school. Parental pride, along with misunderstanding, thwarts a 
great deal of the school work. And when the school raises doubts 
and suspicions as to the parental darlings being altogether “ sound 
in their minds,” and in addition to this neighbors speak now and 
again of a “ dunce school ” or “ mad school,” to which they wouldn’t 
want to intrust their children, the best-intentioned counsels of school 
people and physicians are of no avail; vanity and false shame pre- 
vent them from seeing the matter in its true light. Therefore it is 
advisable to ask the parents’ consent before the children are finally 
admitted to the school, for as yet they can not be forced to send 
them to such a school. The stubborn opposition of some parents 
makes us wish, however, that there might be laws passed which 
would give over to the auxiliary school, even against the will of the 
parents, such children as are known to be meagerly endowed. ‘To 
this end the fourth session of the German Auxiliary School Associa- 
tion (1903) worked faithfully. Among other things, the discussion 
resulted in the following declaration: “ Compulsion should be used 
only when parents stubbornly refuse to allow their children to enter 
the auxiliary school, and can not prove that their education is being 
sufficiently cared for in other ways.” Of course compulsion can be 


48 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


used only when perfectly clear and written proof can be given of the 
mental deficiency of the child. 

Now, this should be sufficiently proved by the question and trans- 
fer sheets, when these are conscientiously filled out. If in spite of 
these sheets there should still be difficulty, the authorities appealed 
to must then decide on the basis of the sheets handed in to them. 
To prevent further cases of this kind the authorities (for instance, 
the school supervisors of the county or district) must make a special 
regulation by which the following right is granted to the larger com- 
munities: Upon the fulfillment of certain definite conditions their 
agents may command and enforce compulsory entrance to the auxili- 
ary school. . 

That there may be a uniform ruling in regard to this important 
matter, all school directors who desire a satisfactory solution of the 
problem should meet together and ask the central authorities to issue 
an order which shall be valid for one whole territorial division. Per- 
haps the current year will bring a much-desired success to the efforts 
which the president of the auxiliary school association has under- 
taken to make before the authorities concerned. The admission pro- 
cedure would then be given a firm basis and much reflection and 
painstaking on the part of the school people and physicians would 
be followed by good results. 

It would, however, be declaring that the popular common practice 
is the only one if we were to say that any child should be admitted 
to the auxiliary school only after he had remained to no purpose one 
year, or even two years, in the folk school. That experience may be 
valuable which teaches that the school period offers the best op- 
portunity to recognize a child’s normality or abnormality. But must 
this long testing time be first passed in all cases before a decision 
can be reached to transfer a child to the auxiliary school? Other 
experience teaches that by the time a child reaches the age of com- 
pulsory school attendance a diagnosis of his abnormal development 
can be made which will be more or less accurate. Naturally the 
decision rests more in the hands of the physician than in those of the 
educator. Many children show sure signs of defective mental de- 
velopment very early. To send these defectives to the folk school 
when a special institution is at hand for them would be doing them 
a great injustice. From their first school days they belong in the 
auxiliary school. If this decision is made and carried out, such an 
auxiliary school pupil has a great advantage in his school life over 
that one who must first endure a long martyrdom in the folk school. 
For the sake of this advantage this second method of admission to 
the auxiliary school must be called practicable and is to be recom- 
mended. 


HOME ENVIRONMENT OF THE PUPILS. 49 


IV.—_THE PARENTS AND THE WHOLE ENVIRONMENT 
OF AUXILIARY SCHOOL PUPILS BEFORE AND DUR- 
ING THE SCHOOL PERIOD. 


Taking it for.granted that the newly admitted pupils remain in the 
auxiliary school without interference on the part of the parents, what 
work is then to be done? For the auxiliary school people the un- 
ceasing work of observing the body and the soul of the new pupils 
begins. But whoever would really know his pupils must first be- 
come acquainted with their parents and their surroundings. 

A twofold effort must be made in order to be able to understand the 
parents. In the first place, the auxiliary school principal should send 
to the official information bureau of the city poor administration a 
list of the new pupils, with the personal record of each as shown in 
the admission blanks, with the request that from its records a state- 
ment be prepared regarding the character of the parents in question. 
On the whole, this confidential information may be accepted as true. 
Two reports may serve as examples: 
q 1. N. N. (dates of birth of parents and children are here given) was punished 

in 1888 with two weeks’ imprisonment on account of injury to the person; in 
1899 with one day imprisonment for fraud; in 1901 with one day in confinement 
for disorderly conduct; his reputation is bad. He associates with a married 
woman who is living apart from her husband, from which alliance there is a 
child. The child is idiotic and has been placed in the asylum at Neinstedter. 
His wife has a good reputation; she has been suffering for a long time from 
cancer of the breast. The child’s surroundings are as bad as possible. 

2. N. N. (dates of birth and vocations of parents and children are given) has 
frequently been lightly punished on account of transgressions. Since 1902 he 
has been in the insane asylum at Alt-Scherbitz as undoubtedly crazy. His wife 
was punished in 1882 for infringement of police regulations ; otherwise she is of 
‘good repute. 


Most of the parents are in hard circumstances. In spite of this, 
however, in great part they manage honestly to keep their heads 
above water, as well as those of their often numerous children, with or 
without the aid of public and private benevolence. Others, how- 
ever, and of these there is unfortunately no small number, have in 
various ways come into too close touch with the courts, or are alcohol 
fiends who hate work and do not lead a model family life. 

These facts ascertained, the second effort is made. The mothers or 
guardians of the children are invited by letter to confer with the 
school principal at his office. To be sure, there are always some who 
do not heed such an invitation, but the majority of the mothers 
appear and also find time for conversation. This conference, at 
which the class teacher is generally present too, is based on the fol- 
lowing definite printed questions: Se aks 

14659—_07——-4. 


THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


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HOME ENVIRONMENT OF THE PUPILS. 51 


Bringing together, then, the results of these two efforts, the teacher 
has a working basis and may proceed to become better acquainted 


_ with the child who is to be subjected to a pedagogical curative treat- 


ment. When mothers do not respond to the friendly invitation of 
the school principal this basis is built up much more slowly, and the 
teacher in experimenting and feeling his way must depend upon 
chance. In Halle I have had quite satisfactory results in my efforts. 
And if I had on one or another occasion parents before me who re- 
mained silent regarding important facts of their life and wished to 
put themselves in a more favorable light, upon finding that I had got 
my bearings from the official records they became more communica- 
tive and made their statements correspond more closely to the truth. 
As for the rest, I seldom met boldness or excessive frankness. Many 
a fact regarding the home life was told with a heavy heart or merely 
hinted at. Often in deep sympathy and with a certain appreciation 
of the persons being questioned, I have anticipated answers. Many 
of the mothers had entered a hard school of life when they married, 


- but they had struggled like heroes against the daily hardships of thats 


existence. Repeatedly at the close of my questions I have had the 
desire to help and encourage with more than words. 

That the information won in these conferences through confidence 
is to be treated as sacred goes without saying. I again cite two cases.¢ 


1. Agnes N. is the stepdaughter of a turner. Her real father, a drunkard 
who was often punished, died of fits. The mother married another drunkard, 
from whom she separated at the end of four years. At the time Agnes entered 
the auxiliary school her stepfather was serving out in prison a four months’ 
sentence for attempted robbery. Before this he had often appeared in court on 
account of disorderly conduct, begging, and injury to persons. The child’s 
mother, although as yet unpunished, is by no means irreproachable in her man- 
ner of living, according to the opinion of the authorities. Her answers to my 
questions, however, did not give the impression of coarseness or cynicism. She 


has given birth in wedlock to five children, the first three of whom died of con- 


yvulsions while young. The youngest child, Agnes N., did not learn to talk and 
walk till the age of four. She has had the measles and evidently has scrofula. 
Convulsions, with which the child was formerly more afflicted than at present, 
have left behind a twitching of the head. Her speech is also faulty. 

2. Otto and Paul M., brothers. Their father, an occasional laborer, died of 
tuberculosis. Of twelve children (Otto and Paul being the ninth and tenth) 


* the mother lost five, partly from convulsions, partly from lack of vital energy. 


It is to be feared that the two youngest children, both girls, will some time have 


_to be sent to the auxiliary school. The birth of the two boys named was instru- 
mental; they suffered greatly while teething, also from measles. Their educa- 
tion has been unusually neglected, because the mother has had to go to work 
- daily. One notices at once a difficulty of speech in the one boy, and of walking 
in the other. Poverty, with the burden of the sickly father, has played a great 
_ part in the abnormal mental development of the two boys. 








7 41 acknowledge the help of the class teachers in completing the details of 
_ these cases, which are later characterized still further, 


5Q THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


Many other statements of parents might be cited here in detail. 
You hear of marriages between near blood relations, of striking 
differences of age, or of nervous diseases in the parents’ relatives. 
Or the mother tells of all kinds of serious accidents, or of trouble 
during her period of pregnancy. Sometimes she ean not give the 
number of births exactly, as when there are something more than 
a dozen or fifteen. It is striking how low the vital energy of such 
all too numerous offspring is; and even when really and fully de- 
veloped they are in many ways a prey to all kinds of developmental 
and infectious diseases. In large families, where the care of the 
children is faulty, falling out of bed, downstairs, or out of a carriage 
often plays a fateful part. These accidents often explain clearly 
the more or less abnormal development of the child. Finally, that 
alcohol and syphilis leave their impression on the child mind can 
be suspected rather than proven by the layman. 

All of these results of examination, combined with proofs of ex- 
ternal bodily failings and defects, can naturally not be established 
regarding an auxiliary pupil at once. But this or that disclosure 
from the record gives cause enough for the continuance of observa- 
tion, in order that the proper vantage ground may be won for an 
individual treatment during the auxiliary school period. 

Foremost among the methods of securing the needed data are the 
visits to the home, which can not be too strongly recommended, 
in the first place, to the folk school teacher. These visits have 
increased value when it is impossible to consult with the mother at 
the school. How many questions the teacher now has on the end of 
his tongue! And yet how careful he must be not to appear as a 
secret-service policeman or detective: It requires a great deal of 
tact to ask the right questions at the right time. But experience 
soon teaches how to find out the necessary details. Among these, 
the time of going to bed and getting up must be ascertained; also 
whether the child has regular nourishment and -whether alcohol 
plays a part in it; further, what work the child has to do. Not less 
important are the facts regarding his sleeping conditions. 

All of these questions will perhaps not be needed in every family. 
Experience and observation must suggest the appropriate questions 
to the teacher. For example, the exceptionally languid appearance 
of a pupil will lead to observations regarding his sleeping condi- 
tions. The teacher’s visit to the home reveals two facts: First, the 
child is kept at work folding paper during the hours he is free from 
school. (This is also the parent’s business.) Instead, then, of re- 
cuperating his energies in the fresh air, he has to sit in a damp 
room and try to earn money. Secondly, the 12-year-old boy has 
to share his scanty bed with a 10-year-old sister and an elder brother. 





HEALTH CONDITIONS OF THE PUPILS. 538 


The report of the observant, zealous teacher causes a general ques- 
tioning in the auxiliary school regarding outside work and condi- 
tions for sleeping. This questioning finally broadens out into a re- 
search regarding the following conditions: Does the child sleep alone 
in the bed (age and sex of his bedfellows)? How many persons 
sleep in one room? Is there an available separate bedroom? Does 
he see his father before school hours? Does his mother prepare a 
_warm drink for him for breakfast? Is outside work done before 
or after school hours? What time-does he go to bed? Get up? 

The resulting answers, indefinite and unreliable as some of them 
always are, throw a certain light on the so-called environment of our 
auxiliary school pupils fully sufficient to place the work of the aux- 
iliary school teacher under the head of “ home missions of a prac- 
tical Christianity.” But a person must: have looked into this envi- 
ronment before he can begin the work in a personal and, therefore, 
successful manner. 





V—HEALTH CONDITIONS OF AUXILIARY SCHOOL 
PUPILS. 


About the time that we are trying to find out the home conditions 
of the pupils before they entered the auxiliary school, we must de- 
termine also their physical development. This is carried on with the 
help of the auxiliary school physician. This is not the place to dis- 
cuss the necessity for a school physician. The question here is to 
show the position and duties of the physician in the auxiliary school. 
In Halle we were persuaded that such a physician was necessary, 
although the numerous polyclinics of the university had rendered 
service in many ways for years and could still do so. The work of 
the auxiliary school physician, who was appointed four years ago, is 
regulated by an order drawn up by me and approved by the oe 
council. It reads as follows: 


THE DUTIES OF THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL PHYSICIAN IN HALLE. 


1. The school physician must. watch over the condition of the pupils’ health 
as well as the hygienic conditions in the school. 

2. A physical examination of all children entering the auxiliary school is to 
be made as soon as possible after their entrance, at most not later than three 
weeks thereafter. This examination is to be repeated every quarter. 

8. The results of the examination are entered on a printed form of health 
record, which accompanies the child from class to class until he leaves the 
school. If a child needs special medical treatment, a note is made to that effect 
upon his record, and it is reported to the principal. This health record, when 
filled out and provided with a number corresponding to the number in the 
register, is placed in the principal's office, where it may be consulted by the 
teachers or the physician of the auxiliary school. 


54 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


4. In addition to these periodic examinations, the school physician must make 
weekly visits to the school. The teachers are to be informed of his presence 
there by the principal, and must then present their observations to him, espe- 
cially those which are of such a nature as to give rise to medical advice. The 
hours for consultation are decided upon by the principal and the.physician. 

5. The school physician does not treat the pupils himself; on the contrary, the 
parents are to be informed by printed notices, which must bear also the signa- 
ture of the principal, that the child should be placed at once under the care of 
a private physician or sent to a polyclinic. 

6. Whenever the physician’s advice has to do with the temporary exclusion of 
pupils from school, or limiting their hours of study, or the assignment of special 
seats to them, or a resort to curative pedagogical measures, he must arrange the 
matter with the principal of the school in order to assure compliance with his 
instructions. 

7. At the end of every school year, the school physician, after conferring with 
the principal, must present a report to the city council in which he is to give a 
short résumé of his medical supervision, pointing out any special cases and suc- 
cessful means employed. 

8. In case the school physician is prevented from visiting the school for more 
than a week, the city council is to be promptly informed of the fact and a suit- 
able substitute appointed. Three months’ notice must be given before the con- 
tract with the council can be annulled. 

9. The council retains the right to change or extend these duties, with the 
consent of the school board. 


In accordance with this order, some time during the year all the 
pupils are examined by the school physician in the presence of the 
class teacher. The examination may take place in the principal’s 
office or in some unoccupied class room. The results of the medical 
examination are entered in a specially prepared health record, which 
is made use of throughout the whole school course. It is thus 
arranged: 


HEALTH RECORD. 





Born (date): oo cla es ee 2 a oe cae 
Vaecinated (oe a a ee ae a aca cen ne 








EXPLANATION OF THE FORM, 


Columns 1, 3, 4, 9, and 10 and the head of the sheet are to be filled in by the teacher, 
the rest by the physician. . 

Columns 3 and 4 are to be filled in every half year. (Correct to a half centimeter and 
a quarter kilogram, respectively.) 

The other columns are to be filled in by the physician when the pupil enters the 
school (columns 5 and 8 only when it seems specially necessary), but subsequently only 
when changes in the child are noticed. 

In column 2, for perfect health ‘ good” is to be written; if there is pronounced 
tendency to disease or chronic diseases, write ‘bad;”’ for other conditions write 
“* medium,” 





HEALTH CONDITIONS OF THE PUPILS. 55 





1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 





(a) C 
om- 
Sreett, a) Eyes, | ments of 
men. eenness | the pbhy- 
5 (b) Spinal - ves: ees srt 
Class and| (Onstitu- Height Weight | Chest | column, ane awe fon Saeki: ments of 
tion. whic. in kg. | measure. eh Anh (c) Mouth,|} treat- | the par- 
(c) Skin nose, mentin |entson— 
teeth, school. 


teachers. 


gare speech. | Signs of 
sites), disease. 



































If a child is in such a condition of health that medical treatment 
seems necessary, the principal of the school informs the parents of 
the fact. The following form of notice, usually sent by mail, has 
always had very satisfactory results: 

By order of the city authorities an examination of your child ~._._.-_______ 


was made. It was found that he is suffering from ______. For the health of 
the child, as well as for the good of the school, it is very essential that ________. 
Halle, (date) ______ , 190... , 
EST mye Fe nn aeeemeeic wipiomes anime mein : 
Rector. 


With very few exceptions the parents have carried out the physi- 
cian’s suggestions, and the children in question have been placed in 
clinical institutions or under other medical treatment. 

In the course of a whole school year the school physician collects a 
large amount of experience of interest to him and to the public. This 
experience he condenses into an official yearly report; one of these 
reports has been published in a daily newspaper in Halle, and now, 
with the consent of the author, I quote from it the following: 

In the two lower classes of the auxiliary school there were 47 pupils from 7 
to 9 years of age. Of these, 21, or about 45 per cent, were in poor health, and 
only 5, or about 10 per cent, were in perfect health. The children from 11 to 14 
years of age showed the proportion reversed. The same result appeared when 
those children were grouped together whose bodily condition could be called 
perfect. While only 2 of the 47 younger children possessed no constitutional or 
organic defects, those in the last school year showed the proportion of 13 out 
of 21. ’ : 

An especially convincing statement regarding the physical defects 
of these auxiliary school pupils is found in the following summary: 

On the whole, only 57 of the 215 children who were in attendance in the 
auxiliary school at Halle during the year 1901 can be said to be free from defects, 
even if in our definition of perfect we do not consider trivial defects, such as 
slight difficulties of speech, abnormalities or diseases of the teeth, slight nervous 
troubles, ete. 


In the school year 1903-4 the results showed a still smaller num- 
ber. Out of 209 children only 11 boys and 15 girls were in a perfect 
general condition. 


56 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


Exact measuring and weighing give a clear insight into the faulty 
development of the body. For measuring height a simple but very 
useful apparatus has been placed at the disposal of the school phy- 
sician by the city authorities; it reminds one forcibly of what goes 
on at a mustering of soldiers. Quickly to determine the weight of 
the body a scale (upon which the child sits) with a sliding weight 
is used. With this apparatus it was discovered that of 47 auxiliary 
school pupils from 7 to 9 years of age 30 fell below the average 
height (as given by Schmid-Monnard for example) and 31 below the 
average weight. Only a few reached this average and a still smaller 
number exceeded it. The report for the year 1903-4 showed that 
in height 19 boys out of 105 exceeded the average, 30 reached it, and 
56 fell below it, while among 104 girls 9 exceeded it, 33 reached it, 
and 62 fell below it. Of 105 boys 24 exceeded the average weight, 
31 reached it, and 50 fell below, while of 104 girls 9 exceeded it, 45 
reached it, and 50 fell below it. Similarly small numbers were noted 
in connection with the chest measure. 

While these data can serve only as a basis of comparison and give 
hints as to a certain connection between mental and physical defi- 
ciencies, the following facts are generally of direct service to the 
pupil himself. The medical examination of the body and its sepa-: 
rate parts sometimes reveals diseases about which the parents know 
nothing. Often, also, suspicions of the teacher, who in his daily in- 
tercourse with the pupil can of course note any striking change, are 
confirmed. In most such cases advice can then be given and often a 
permanent cure effected. 

It was of great consequence that in stubborn cases the school phy- 
sician could be helped by other city physicians. Various specialists 
were so deeply interested in the auxiliary school that they placed 
their knowledge and their art at the disposal of the little patients 
in the most unselfish way. How often, for example, was a busy 
oculist called on for aid, and he never refused our request. As a 
result of his examinations a great many of the pupils were provided 
with glasses, the cost of which was borne by the city poor adminis- 
tration. It was with great satisfaction that we noted decided prog- 
ress in the mental development of such pupils. But an ear and nose 
specialist showed his benevolent spirit, too. In how many cases are 


swollen tonsils and adenoid growths connected with the pupil’s lan- ~ 


guor or dullness! The researches of M. Bresgens and others have 
aroused the hope that certain operations upon the tonsils and nose 
will be able to awaken the slumbering mind of the child. And in 
the office of the principal at Halle there is a picture which shows 
types of pupils “ before the operation” and “after the operation,” 
in order to illustrate the surprisingly good results of such operations. 

Unfortunately, however, one wish, shared by parents and teacher 
alike, is not realizable—that is, that by the removal of the swollen 


.HEALTH CONDITIONS OF THE PUPILS. 57 


tonsils and the adenoid growths every auxiliary school pupil might 
be restored to the regular school. Unless these pathological phenom- 
ena exclude pathological changes or defects-in the central nervous 
system, we can not count on the improvement of the mental powers. 
But very often, at least, such operations relieve or do away with 
annoying headaches, ini speech, or troublesome hardness of hear- 
_ ing, as well as aversion or inability to follow a definite line of work 
in the school; and so the services of the ear and nose specialist may 
be of great value to the auxiliary school pupils. 

Since the auxiliary school physician most frequently meets with 
nerve diseases, from abnormal excitability to the most serious phases 
of brain troubles, it is highly necessary that he should study 
deeply and carefully all neurological sciences and strive after the 
skill in diagnosis possessed by a Ziehen or an Oppenheim. On ac- 
count of the recognized difficulty of accurate diagnosis and the num- 
ber of forms of nervous troubles, it is very desirable for the school 
physician to have the aid of a specialist in this department. At Halle 
we were very fortunate in this regard. A university professor 
helped the school physician in his examinations and consented to 
treat children afflicted with paralysis, epilepsy, or St. Vitus’s dance. 

Up to this time no dentist has been definitely connected with the 
school. But the children’s teeth, as well as their eyes, noses, and 
ears, should be carefully examined. What suprisingly bad conditions 
are revealed by the scrutiny of the teeth alone! It is well known how 
important healthy teeth are for digestion as well as for speech, and 
therefore it is necessarily true that the dentist, too, can find in the 
auxiliary school a rich field for the exercise of his benevolence. 

Whenever the services of a specialist were required by the auxil- 
iary school, it was taken for granted that, above all, humanity and 
mercy should spur him on to help us. But with this mercy there 
must be no inconsiderate desire for research which considers the 
auxiliary school solely as a‘rich field for scientific observation and 
study. 

It is easy to see that, in addition to his many-sided professional as- 
sistance, the physician is in other ways a blessing to the auxiliary 
school. By his friendly counsel many improper foods and wrong 
ways of treating the children have been abolished from the home. 
’ In various ways the pupils’ school work can be made easier, at his 
_ suggestion. The united efforts of principal and physician have also 
repeatedly succeeded in placing in hospitals or nurseries children who 
were very delicate or in need of special care, or sometimes in placing 
them in better surroundings in vacation colonies, and thus making 
them more capable of resisting the attacks-of diseases. 

Perhaps more cities with forests in the vicinity will take up the 
_ idea which has been put into practice most successfully at Charlot- 


58 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY, 


tenburg, viz, to give lessons in the woods, not merely to individual 
pupils who need recreation, but to whole classes of the auxiliary 
school a week at a time. The school physician will certainly consent 
to the temporary removal of the children to the forest. 

From the foregoing statements the duties of the auxiliary school 
physician can easily be deduced, as well as the number of demands to 
be made upon him, and his relation to the principal and the teachers. 
In the main, the physician has to help and advise both the parents and 
the teachers. To be sure, the latter will often be able to help the 
physician by their counsel, and in saying this I have in mind not 
only suspicions of diseases, but also psychological observations re- 
garding the talent and mental ability of the pupils. Every prudent 
physician will therefore be willing to follow any suggestion made by 
the principal to attend teachers’ meetings or class instruction in order 
to test his opinions in the light of the opinions of practical school 
people. In this way many a prejudice can be removed from both 
sides. If from the start the auxiliary school physician takes the 
position outlined by Goérke, that “the physician must continually 
help and control the teacher,” he is making pretensions which can 
only do injury to a good cause.. . 

Of course the authorities will intrust an auxiliary school only to 
a physician who has shown an interest either in school hygiene or 
child study. But it is often very hard to find an experienced physi- 
cian who is willing to accept the position of auxiliary school physi- 
cian; consequently the auxiliary school physicians are mostly younger 
men. Should these have had as much preparation for their calling 
as the president of the German Society for School Hygiene requires 
of a physician for the regular school? Professor Griesbach’s require- 
ment is as follows: To be a school physician a person should know 
the human body accurately and have spent considerable time in a 
hygienic laboratory—should be a medical man who, on examination, 
shows exceptionally thorough knowledge of the principles of hy- 
giene. The school physician should also attend pedagogical lectures, 
and in case he is to teach in higher schools, seminaries, Oberrealschu- 
len, and Gymnasien, he must give specimen lessons, just as every 
candidate for the teacher’s certificate must do. “A school physician 
who, besides being an able medical man, is also qualified to teach 
medicine, can and will be of great service to a school in both a peda- 
gogical and a medical way, and will be able to exert a very beneficial 
influence over the students.” 

Griesbach very properly lays great stress upon the physician’s 
knowledge of hygiene, but the auxiliary school physician will have 
to show special ability in psychology and psychiatry, too. However, 
with a knowledge of pedagogy we could very well dispense, for if 
it can be only superficial the physician brings upon himself, from the 


~~ 


CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 59 


start, a kind of odium which can help him very little in his position. 
Rather let the auxiliary school doctor be a physician, and a first- 
class one at that.’ No one will question the many-sidedness of his 
training or regard his duties as of secondary importance. Physician 
and teaching staff in the auxiliary school at Halle have never thought 
of comparing the relative values of their work. As soon as the 
physician realizes that the teacher’s highest aim is to better the 
physical as well as the mental condition of the pupils, he will co- 
operate straightway_in the attainment of this aim. The result of 
this association will be that the teacher will recognize in the physician 
a necessary link in the chain of common medical and pedagogical 
efforts being made. And in this way, in my opinion, the duties and 
position of the physician in an auxiliary school of one of our larger 
cities should be conceived. 

Should it, on the other hand, be necessary for the auxiliary school 
physician to give advice and instruction to the school principal with 
regard to length of recitations, the number and use to be made of 
intermissions, the order of subjects in the daily programme, etc. ? 
It is to be supposed that all such hygienic requirements are already 
commonly looked after at these schools. On looking into the real 
working of the school he will soon see how the matter stands. Some- 
times, as an expert in school hygiene, he finds another kind of im- 
portant work. Suppose a city community is short of funds. It 
declares that a certain room ‘is good enough to be used for the aux- 
iliary classes. Now, the teacher considers this room entirely unsuit- 
able for many reasons. If the physician makes a statement that he 
ugrees with the teacher, or if he makes a report in professional terms 
to the health commissioners in case of the larger cities, for example, 
his word has often more weight than that of the schoolman. In his 
professional capacity he can accomplish easily what the layman could 
never succeed in doing. 

Therefore it is evident that if physician and teacher have set up 
the good of the pupils and the more complete development of the 
auxiliary school as their aim, they will easily find the direction in 
which the duties of each one should lead. 





VI._THE PUPILS OF THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL AND 
THEIR CHARACTERIZATION. 


The teacher of the regular school, especially if he meets his pupils 
only as their instructor, probably in all cases does not worry very 
much about the questions: “How does the material of instruction 
presented affect the pupil, and what interest does he take in his school 
work?” If he would fully answer these questions, he would have to 


60 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


pass upon each pupil in the class separately, or as we say, indi- 
vidualize him. But to do this the teacher, to begin with, must be 
psychologically minded, as Altenburg has set forth so convincingly. 
The high ideals of the teacher can be all too easily shattered by the 
great amount of subject-matter to be covered and the excessive size of 
the classes assigned to him, and he is forced to make continual com- 
promises. He soon accustoms himself to a certain routine, treats his 
subjects in a most mechanical way, but is adept at showing results — 
which satisfy the lay authorities. As circumstances in general make 
the man, the teacher first entering upon his duties with a thousand 
ideals gradually, through the force of adverse circumstances, be- 
comes a mere workman, and compromises his art. 

But these teachers who work in a certain rut must by all means 
be kept out of the auxiliary school. It must never happen that too 
many subjects or too many children shall cause the teachers to treat 
all pupils alike. Here the pupil must be judged according to psycho- 
logical principles by a teacher who knows these principles well, i. e., 
the growth of every individual child must be watched in the auxiliary 
school, and.noted down in writing, so as to give a picture or charac- 
terization of him. One may think that the auxiliary school teacher 
really can form a pretty good idea of a pupil when his development, 
before he entered the school, has already been traced out and written 
down (in the special record), and his physical peculiarities (in the 
health record) and even his conduct in the regular school (in his 
certificates from this school) have become known to him. And cer- 
tainly we can form a fairly reliable picture of the child from all these 
statements. But this picture is not the picture of an auxiliary school 
pupil; that must now be attained. As is well known, the child who 
comes from the regular school does not appear the same in the aux- 
iliary school as he did in the other. Further, the time spent in the ° 
auxiliary school is long enough to justify our speaking of a develop- 
ment there. | 

Now, what written description has been given of this development, 
and how is, on the whole, the auxiliary school pupil characterized ? 
In Leipzig the characterization of the pupil begins and ends with 
taking a photograph of the individual. This method of preserving 
the external appearance of a pupil at the beginning and end of his 
school course is worthy of consideration. Even yet I remember dis- 
tinctly one boy who, on entering the auxiliary school at Halle, was 
almost speechless and without spirit, on account of having been 
neglected at home; his “ anthropoid ” appearance incited one at once 
to take his photograph. After some years the expression of his face 
had changed so much that his second photograph seemed to represent 
-an entirely different human being. Photography can then give a 
brief but eloquent characterization of a pupil which will reveal the 
developing mind. 


CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 61 


For a long time it was considered sufficient to characterize the pupil 

by reports, and this system comes down from the time of pedagogical 
compromises. In most cases the teacher summed ‘up in brief his 
judgment, until at last a figure, given half-yearly, was used to mark 
the growth in the mental, moral, and religious life of the pupil. 
But can figures be so used? This question has been raised often 
enough before, for every time these reports are made out the inade- 
quacy of figures is felt anew. But tradition is so powerful, and it 
is so easy to write figures, that even the auxiliary school teacher is 
loath to give them up. Nevertheless, these meaningless figures must 
not be used in the auxiliary school, of all places. With this in mind, 
a school register was planned at Halle which, above all, did away with 
the use of arbitrary signs in valuing mental qualities, and was 
designed to offer opportunities for concrete expression and a written 
statement of experiences and observations. This little book accom- 
panies the pupil throughout his school course and causes the teacher 
to express his opinion every half year regarding the conduct, atten- 
tion, and interest of the pupil and his ability to express himself 
orally and in writing. Remarks regarding any striking peculiari- 
ties are followed by notes regarding progress in the various branches 
of study. But the longer this register is used, the more clearly we 
see how inadequate it is. Can, then, an observant teacher give in 
such concise form a description of a pupil, so that another person can 
form an accurate mental picture of him? It is indeed a truth that 
here also brevity is the soul of wit. The fewer statements of obser- 
- vations a personal register or individual record requires, the surer 
are we that every teacher will fill in the form and answer all the 
— questions. 
We must: remember that the auxiliary school teacher is, after all, 
. only human. At first full of enthusiasm for a matter which seems 
so important to him, he sets conscientiously to work. But if the 
work becomes continuous with increasing many-sidedness and the 
short intervals of time permit but little progress to be noticed, his 
ardor cools and idealism becomes mechanism. Mechanical treatment 
of these evaluations of child life leads to their death. Some few 
plans for evaluations have been published, but for widely different 
reasons none of these can be recommended. How much scribbling is 
often caused by these records! To illustrate this, let us present three 
plans—those of Gorke, Klibe, and Richter: 


Form for the personal records of auxiliary school pupils (by Dr. M. Gorke). 


I. PERSONAL DATA. 
(To be filled gn by the teacher.) 


1. Surname and Christian name. 
2. Age, place of birth, and religion. 
8. Name and station of the father and the mother, 


62 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


Il, ANAMNESIS (PAST HISTORY).. 


(To be filled in by the teacher.) 


(a) Family anamnesis: 
1. Illnesses or causes of death of the parents and brothers and sisters and 
the present condition of their health. 
2. Nerve troubles, mental diseases, deafness and dumbness in the family 
connections, 
3. Are the parents blood relations? 
4. Economic conditions of the family. 
(b) Personal anamnesis: 
1. Course of birth. 
2. Nourishment (mother’s breast, artificial). 
3. Physical development— 

(1) Tooth formation. 

(2) When did the child begin to walk? 

(83) Development of senses. 

(4) Previous diseases, especially epilepsy and other nerve troubles. 

4. Intellectual development— 

(1) When did he begin to talk? 

(2) When were difficulties in speech first noticeable? 

(3) What was their nature? 

(4) When was mental abnormality first noticed? 

(5) How was this shown? 

(6) What is its probable cause (accident, illness, serious mistakes in 
education, such as the overtaxing of body or mind, or, on the 
other hand, their inactivity ; penury, privation, etc.) ? 

(7) Were the mental anomalies permanent or transient? Were they 
of a progressive or fixed character? 

(8) What medical or pedagogical correctives have been employed 
against these anomalies, and with what result? 

5. Ethical development. Did the child show special defects, impulses, and 
abnormal tendencies (lying, rage, fearfulness, appetite, laziness) ? 


III. PRESENT STATUS. 


[To be filled in by the physician. ] 

1. Physical condition: 

(1) General condition of the body (weight, size, appearance, complexion, 
nourishment, carriage, muscles, ete.; shape of head). 

(2) Sense activity: (@) Eyes, (b) ears, (c) smell and taste, (d) sensibility 

se to pain and touch. 

(3) Abnormal formation of separate parts of the body (divided palate, 
defects of teeth, etc.). 

(4) Observable signs of disease (scrofula, rickets, kypho-skoliosus, errnine, 
condition of the internal organs, nasal breathing). 

(5) Are paralysis (or paresis) or contractions present? 

(6) Choreic movements, twitchings. 

2. Emotional and nervous nature. *In making examination, do you come to 
clues which indicate any defect in the emotions or the will, as excitement, 
fear, restlessness, low spirits, whimsicality? Are special inclinations or 
interests shown? . 


CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 63 


3. Intellectual activity : 
(1) Attention. 
(2) How does his thought proceed (with difficulty or quickly, smoothly or 
disconnectedly ) ? 
(3) Speech— : 
(a) Does the child speak of himself in the first person? 
Does he use infinitives in spéaking? 
(b) Difficulties of speech (state them clearly). 
(4) Imagination. 
(5) Memory (is there one-sided development) ? 
(6) Formation of judgments and conclusions. 
(7) Ideas of number. 
(8) Sense of form. 
(9) Sense of color. 
(10) Has he any idea of time and space? 
(11) What has he accomplished in the several school subjects? 


Group III is to be carried on further by the teacher as long as the 
child attends the school. 


Characterization of pupils (according to K. Klibe). 


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5. Name and station of parents or guardian _- 2-22 ee 
6. Survey of the child’s school course: 





Duration of at-| Notes regarding interruption of his school 


When admit- School 
ted. t tendance. work, promotion, change of schools, etc. 














A. Remarks regarding the child’s development previous to entering school___ ___ 
B. Stage of development the child had reached when he entered the auxiliary 
school : 
1. Physical condition 
2. Mental development ______-__- 
3. Frame of mind (disposition) - 
4. Probable causes of the psychopathic phenomena_______-____ 
C. Additional remarks concerning the child throughout his school course__---- < 
(Date of such remarks ot 











64 | THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


D. Survey of the child’s interest in the school work, his knowledge and skill: 





Date. Easter, | Michaelmas,| Easter, | Michaelmas, 
| 19... 19... 19... 





BGUgiION «5 5. S25. os- don cmb ko 9a eo 
German language: 
Reading material: -... 2. i Ace sanaseaeeeeus 
Ability to read...: ..- ..-0..05, soap eon ae 
Ability to write... a eee eee 
Ability to express his thoughts orally and in 


History singe Bide sae wa = byw w aie. § nels wa re 
Home encaiy ots tos sin ake oe Saari ees Rane ae 
Nature study... -.-...+2251652-s-2sseeeseee- awene 


GYMNASTICS S...0:. scl cameo ee ee eee 
Technical: work. ......>-.- sos p6u-s ese nee oe eee 
Domestic economy: .2+... 22). tnecu eee ee oe 
Absences: 

Excused... 5.2.3 <2 oese eee ae eee 

















EK. Psychological exposition of the weak points in the child’s endow- 
Meant =... soe 
F. Dismissal : 
1. Time and causes 
2. How far advanced in the various school branches___.__.----- 
3. Remarks in the dismissal certificate 
4. How has the school made it easier for this child to enter life?__-____--_ 
G. Additional notes regarding the pupil after his dismissal from school____-_-__- 








K. Richter demands the greatest degree of detail and thorough- 
ness in these characterizations. In this connection he states: 


For such characterizations of pupils, the following points must be observed : 

1. In the case of each child, only those characteristics are to be considered 
which are peculiar to him; all the others must be left unmentioned. The main 
points in his moral conduct and his progress are always to be given. 

2. Observations and information regarding the home training and its possible 
influence upon the school training and. instruction should be entered in the. 
proper place, as well as regarding differences in the conduct of the children in 
and out of school toward other pupils when watched and when not watched by 
the teacher, and regarding other points. . 

3. Regarding those children who attend another class for certain branches, 
accurate reports should be made at Haster to the class teacher on whatever 
concerns his conduct and progress in these branches that is to be noted in the 
characterization. 

4. In each later characterization, only the changes and new phenomena are 
to be noted which have appeared in the course of the school year, as compared 
with what has already been noted. : 

5. The characterizations are to be expressed in language which is concise and 
to the point. 

Characterization form of K. Richter. 


A. PHYSICAL CONDITION. 


Irregularity in structure and function: 
1. Of the body in general, in regard to: 
(a) Its size, as compared with that of normal children of the same age, and 
the size of its parts in relation to one another. 





=] 


CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 65 


(b) Its posture in sitting, standing, walking. 

(c) Its diseases and defects: Syphilis, scrofula, rickets, tuberculosis, epilepsy, 
anzemia, indigestion (easily nauseated, evacuation of the bowels and 
bladder), abnormal condition of the skin (chapped, flabby, wrinkled, 
abnormal perspiration, etc.), trembling and twitching of the muscles, 
easily provoked headache, illnesses during the school year, curvature 
of the spine, chicken-breasted, narrow-chestedness (breathing), club- 
foot, lack of symmetry in members of the body, paralysis, defective 
sexual organs (puberty, influence of coming of a upon the 
physical and mental life), ete. 

Of the head: Size, shape, relation between skull and face, form of skull and 

face (asymmetry), facial expression (play of expression). 

Of the eyes: Distance from one another, inflammation, paralysis of the lids, 
squinting, rolling, cataracts and spots on the eyes, changeableness and 
difference in size of the pupils, short-sightedness and weakness of vision, 
dull, lifeless, restless, vacant gaze, lack of ability to keep the eyes fixed 
upon one object, color-blindness, etc. 


. Of the ears: Exterior (outstanding, large, abnormal rim, folds, helixes, at- 


tached lobes, lack of the same), diseases, hearing. 


. Of the nose and throat regarding smelling and breathing (chronic catarrh, 


adenoid growths, ozena). 


. Of the mouth: 


(a) The lips (distorted, thick, hare-lip). : 
(b) The chin (protruding or receding, etc.). 

(c) The teeth (number, condition, position). 

(d) Palate, uvula, tonsils. 

(e) Tongue (thick, tongue-tied, taste, etc.). 

(f) Secretion of saliva (slavering). 


. Of the skin: Sensitiveness to heat, blows (as in wounds), ete. 


B. FRAME OF MIND AND CHARACTER. 


Peculiarities in regard to: 


. Disposition: Quiet, serious, sad, melancholy, bad-humored, peevish, sullen, 


morose, indifferent, sensitive, touchy, soft-hearted, tearful, emotional, whim- 
sical, callous, shy, anxious, fearful, timid, bright, gay, lively, unruly, boister- 
ous, irritable. 


. The sensuous feelings and impulses: 


(a) Appetite: Eats too little, refuses food, eats a great deal, greedy, loves 
sweets, is dainty, chews paper, wood, finger nails, ete., eats dirt, ete. 

(b) Sexual impulses: Strongly developed ; self-pollution. 

(c) Impulse toward activity: Lack of physical activity, fond of ease, indo- 
lent, lazy, easily enervated, sleepy, taciturn, restless, lively, moves con- 
vulsively, always playing and toying with things, unsteady and pre- 
cipitate in movements and actions, inclined- to laugh (hysterical), 
talkative, boisterous. . 

Automatic movements (swaying of parts of the body), gliding, stag- 
gering, drumming, rubbing, movement of tongue and lips, making 
faces, etc. 

Clumsy, awkward, unsteady, ungainly in simple movements (spread- 
ing and bending the fingers, grasping, throwing, rising up), weak 
muscle feeling, faulty memory for connected movements (dressing and 
undressing), left or right handed. 

Imitation (mechanical or deliberate). 


14659—07-——=5 


66 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


(d) Over-developed impulse for collecting articles, kleptomania, pyromania 


(Kokeln), destroying: things, running away, ‘wandering about, con- 
tradicting. 

3. Moral feelings: 

(a) Feelings toward self: With or without self-respect and self-confidence, 
proud, haughty, honorable, ambitious, vain, love of admiration, boast- 
ful, without sense of honor, courageous, bold, cowardly. 

(b) Feelings toward others: Conduct toward adults and children: Faithful, 
excessive love; indifferent to parents, fellows, and familiar events; 
apathetic, repellant; grateful and willing to acknowledge the kindness 
of others; polite and obliging, thoughtful, fawning, confidential, sus- 
picious, modest, obtrusive, bold, shameless, disobedient, unruly, per- 
verse, stubborn, indifferent to praise and blame. 

Shares others’ joys and sorrows, jealous, envious, malicious, scornful, 
mischief-maker, mean, revengeful. 

Sociable (pupil-friendships), tendency to avoid others, ,good-natured, 
inoffensive, fond of teasing, touchy, quarrelsome, unsociable, domineer- 
ing, leads others astray, fault-finding, tattling, violent, plays underhand 
tricks, rough, cruel (torments animals). 

(N. B. For the sake of brevity, the opposites of the qualities have in 
most cases been omitted.) 

(c) Feeling for right and duty: With or without sense of right, duty, and 
propriety ; conscientious, negligent, fickle, thoughtless; shame, repent- 
ance; selfish, covetous, deceitful, thievish, generous, dogmatic, arrogant, 
well or ill behaved, sly; loves truth, sincere, mendacious (from intel- 
lectual or moral weakness), hypocritical; behavior in sexual relations. 

4. Religious feelings: With or without religious feeling, superstitious, cant- 
ing, hypocritical, ete. 

5. The esthetic feelings: Lack of sense of beauty (shapes, tones, colors), love of 
that which is ugly and in bad taste, pleasure in rough talk, preference for 
indecent language; love of order and cleanliness with respect to his own 
body, clothes, school things, surroundings; promptness. - 

6. Intellectual feelings: Pleasure in success, displeasure in failure, uncer- 
tainty (doubt) regarding the accuracy of his own accomplishments, self- 
satisfied, self-complacent, overestimating his own knowledge and ability, 
easily surprised, curious, inquisitive. . 

With or without spontaneous, energetic impulse, indifferent, without 
energy and weak of will, dependent upon the impressions of the moment, 
easily managed and influenced, credulous and easily misled, soon wearied, 
inconstant and fickle in desires, reluctant, lazy,fond of work, industrious, 
docile. 


C. INTELLECTUAL STATUS. 


Special characteristics in regard to: 
1. Mental capacity in general: 

(a) Ineapable of training; is he nearer this or the normal? 

(b) Symmetry in the development of the main faculties of the mind (mem- 
ory, powers of thought); irregularity, special weakness or strength of 
the one or the other. 

(c) Time required by mental processes: Slow, mentally inert, averse to men- 
tal work, lazy habits of thought, precipitate and rash, flighty, thought- 
less, 


————e 








CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 67 


2. Attentiveness during mental activity; voluntary and involuntary attention: 
Attentive, inattentive, keenly observant, indifferent, persistent, soon 
wearied, consistent, inconstant, easily distracted, jumping from one thing 
to another, digressive, absent-minded, heedless, only attentive when recalled 
frequently to the subject. 

Interest in the work in general or in particular studies. 


3. Particular mental powers: 

(a) Conduct on receiving new impressions and sensations; receptivity, quick- 
ness and power of apprehension; difficult or easy, slow, quick, incom- 
plete and inaccurate, complete and clear. Superficial in perception and 
observation. Differences in the various senses. One-sided preference 
for certain signs. 

More or less weak or defective excitability and improvement of old’ 
impressions by grasping something new; difficulty of understanding 
and comprehending sense perceptions or language. 

(b) Power to assimilate, retain, and recall (memory): Hard or easy, more 

or less complete assimilation of maxims, verses, poems, multiplication 
table, and such mechanical material, or impression of that gained by 
work in the several branches of study. 

Shorter or longer retention of sense perceptions and images. For- 
getfulness. 

Many-sidedness of observation; strong or defective memory for 
names, words, numbers, symbols (letters, figures), colors, places, tones, 
successions of objects, connected movements, etc. Mental horizon ac- 
cording to its extent, kind, and form. 

Quicker or slower recollection; faithfulness of reproduction without 
omissions, inversions, confusion, additions, or the opposite. 

(c) Power to work over and digest what has been acquired: 

(1) In thinking: Hard and slow distinction of objects and their special 
features, their resemblances, similarities, etc., and of the essential 
from the nonessential. Difficult and imperfect abstraction (forma- 
tion of concepts), does not advance beyond sense-images; poverty of 
general notions in certain directions, and in this or that department 
of study; unclear and vague ideas, confusion and intermixing of 
ideas. 

Accuracy, rapidity, certainty of judgments and conclusions in re- 
gard to concrete and abstract things. 

(2) In the activity of the imagination: Weak or easily excited imagination ; 
difficulty in thinking of anything pictured, in imagining things not 
present, or in placing himself in other times, in strange countries and 
lands, in the frame of mind of people living under other conditions 
(biblical history, compositions, etc.). 

Imagination when at play (building, exercises in putting things 
together, etc.), in hand work (change of form and size), in drawing, 

(form, color). 

Fanciful (planning subterfuges, evil reports regarding others, often 
quite credible). 
4. Development of speech: 

(a) The tone of speech as to its strength, timbre, pitch: Gentle, whispering, 
loud, shrieking ; singing, monotonous, false or too much accented ; harsh, 
hoarse, screeching; sharp, squeaking, droning, restrained, nasal; high, 
deep (puberty). 


68 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


(b) Pronunciation and rate of speaking: Impure tones, careless pronuncia- 
tion of end-syllables, slow, long-drawn out, hesitating, jerky, stammer- 
ing, stuttering (insertion of syllables and words), rapid, run together, 
rattling, blundering, with the omission or repetition of syllables and 
words. 

(c) Organic and central defects of speech: Lisping, stammering, stuttering ; 
complete or partial inability to speak (only single sounds, syllables, 
certain words and phrases can be spoken). ‘Tripping on -syllables. 
Failure to see the connection between sense perception and the word, 
letter and sound, figure and number, mental image and word; word 
deafness and word blindness. Confusion of words with each other 
without noticing it (e. g., for wardrobe (Schrank), table; for table, 
leg, ete.). 

(d) Clearness and accuracy of speech: Clear, connected, parrot-like, defi- 
cient vocabulary, inventing words, choice of expressions, use of collo- 
quial expressions and dialect. 

Development of feeling for language (Sprachgefiihl) : Difference in 
ability to understand and speak the dialect and the written language. 
Mistakes in the order of words, use of the infinitive in speaking, false 
inflection, use of wrong tenses, prepositions, etc. 


D. DEVELOPMENT IN KNOWLEDGE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 


Under this head will be considered the child’s attitude toward the subject- 
matter presented in, particular branches, which is conditioned by his mental 
and physical endowment. Therefore, by reference to the peculiarities given 
under A, B, and C, we shall now show to what points the chief attention is to be 
given in connection with the various branches of study. 


1. Religious instruction: What religious conceptions, thoughts, and feelings 
does he already possess? Is it easy or difficult for him to grasp religious 
teachings? Interest in such instruction and understanding of it, especially 
in regard to biblical material of the grade in question. 

Stage of development of his thought in. connection with religious mate- 
rial (distinguishing, judging, and forming conclusions, especially regarding 
the ethical and religious value of actions and the acquirement of ethical 
and dogmatic teachings). Understanding, retention, and reproduction of 
religious material. Application of the results to his own behavior. 

2. Realien (subjects affording positive knowledge of things) : 


(a) Object lessons: Powers to observe and describe the material presented 
by nature, model, and picture. Differences in perception through the 
different senses. Acquired knowledge of names, qualities, activities, 
purpose, application, use, etc., of things and events in his environ- 
ment. - 

Interest and manner of participation in a conversation. Under- 
standing of a conversation regarding things present to the senses or 
absent, and of those moral or religious impulses aroused by the same. 

Thought and imagination in connection with the material presented. 
Memory for fables connected with it, snatches of poetry, ete. 

(b) Nature study: Power to see and recognize localities and objects in 
nature, model, and picture. Greater or less possession of ideas gained 
through his own experience or through instruction. Power of think- 
ing regarding natural objects (relation between structure and function, 
motive and result, cause and effect, etc.). 


CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 69 


(c) “Homeology” (Heimatkunde) and geography: Pupil’s ability to observe 
(what he sees when by himself and what takes place in class ram- 
bles) ; activity of the memory and ability to transport himself (in 
imagination) into districts previously seen (sense of locality), Skill 
in transferring his ideas to a map. Skill in finding places on it and 
interpreting it. Transferal of fundamental gi asic ideas in 
“homeology ” to the chart. 

Ability to compare geographical objects with each other, and to pre- 
sent to his mind, in absence of a map, the objects in question. Power 
to acquire and retain knowledge of his home environment and geog- 
raphy. 

History: Interest in historical persons, facts, and events connected 
with our immediate and more remote fatherland, and understanding 
of the same. Memory for facts, names, etc. 

3. German: 

(a) Reading: Reading book and reading material (knowledge of printed and 
written letters, formation of syllables and words, reading of sentences 
and connected extracts. German or Roman type). Grade of mechani- 
eal skill in reading, and the intelligent reading of this material. 
Characteristic errors in reading. Reproduction of selections read, 
and memory for these. 

(b) Correct writing: Copying of written letters and words, with or without 
knowledge of their meaning. Copying from print (German, Roman). 
Power in the analysis and synthesis of words. Writing from dicta- 
tion (mechanical or after reflection). Characteristic errors. 

(c) Written compositions: Grade of ability to write down his own thoughts 
or those of others. Errors in construction of sentences, order of words 
and thoughts, choice of expressions, etc. 

4. Arithmetic: Number work (knowledge of the order of numbers, counting, 
and the writing of numbers). Mechanical skill in the first four rules, 
stating how large numbers he can use in each. Differences in oral and 
written arithmetic. Specially good memory for numbers, sequence of the 
operations and results, or lack of the same. Understanding for the applica- 
tions of arithmetic. Striking differences between the ability to handle 
concrete and abstract examples. 

5. Accomplishments: 

(a) Calligraphy: Material presented. Knowledge of the forms of letters and 
their differences. Aptitude for copying. Characteristics of writing 
(direction, strength, spacing, relative size of letters, regularity of 
letters, etc.). 

(b) Drawing: Net line drawing (straight and curved lines), stigmographic 
drawing (different distances of points), free-hand drawing. Under- 
standing and copying different directions and sizes, singly and in 
groups (figures). Manner of performance: Mechanical or after re- 
flection, more-or less independent, light or heavy hand, eye measure- 
ment, accuracy, neatness. Imagination and taste in the matter of 
forms and colors. 

(c) Singing: Hearing, voice, sense of time, musical memory ; special prefer- 
ence for music, singing, certain songs, ete. 

(d) Gymnastics: Strength, endurance, nimbleness and sense of rhythm in 
executing the movements. Behavior during gymnastic and popular 
games. (sociability, defects of character, imagination). 

(e) Handwork: Kind of activity. Cleverness in any special line. Special 
interest in some one kind of activity. Method and manner of execu- 
tion and degree of skill acquired. 


70 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


But it is not only the amount of writing required which terrifies 
one; the teacher who has any special interest in the finer shades of 
the child’s development feels it a burden to have to answer definite 
printed questions. Let the scheme for a description of a pupil, there- 
fore, be neither too comprehensive nor its questions too finely drawn. 
It happens that not every auxiliary school teacher can be in a position 
to propose a perfectly unobjectionable form. Triiper therefore 
properly urged the joint action of many coworkers interested in the 
subject (Kinderfehler, 1897, 5-6); and if this cooperation led to 
nothing else than the gaining of some common points of view from 
which to work out a suitable scheme, this would be a great gain. 
Unfortunately Triiper’s plea was without effect. Few works have 
appeared since then, and of none of them can it be said that they 
help toward unity. Perhaps Lay’s “ individuality list” may serve 
as a starting point. In his Experimental Didactics, Lay works out 
his list from the following points of view: 


A. Conditions and functions: 
I. Inheritance. 
II. Environment— 
(a) Family— 
1. Nourishment (mistakes, alcoholism). 
2. Illnesses. 
3. Amount of sleep (its depth, room, bedfellows). 
4, Play and recreation (kind, time, work outside of school, 
private lessons). 
5. Bringing up (parents’ view of life, mistakes, examples). 
(b) Fellow-men— 
1. Friendships and playmates. 
2. Public life (street, religious and political companionship). 
(ec) Nature— 
Natural surroundings (of the home, of place of residence). 
III. Correlations of the sensory-motor mechanism— 
(a) Physical and psychical energy. 
(b) Exhaustibility. 
(c) Talents. 
(d) Traits of character. 
B. Physical qualities: 
General, constitution, size, weight, abnormalities, diseases. 
C. Mental qualities: 
I. Sensory: Type of observation. 
II. Associative: Attention, memory, interest. 
III. Motor: Movements, dexterity, actions. 


While previous proposals dealt with details, Lay’s plan rises to 
a certain generality as a logical structure. Direct reference to the 
departments of study is wanting to it. This apparent defect is to 
be greeted as an advance. In Halle it is just the necessity of entering 
up in the register every half-year a concise criticism of the work 
in each subject which showed the inadequacy of that method. For 
example, What can the teacher say regarding progress in religious 


CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 7 71 


instruction? Is he to look over the work covered and then write: 
“N. N. has learned well or poorly a number of biblical stories, 
parts of the catechism, verses of songs, and maxims?” Or is he 
rather to emphasize the greater appreciation of the subject-matter? 
Or, finally, could a measure be applied to the increasing harmony 
between the childish deeds and the religious and moral impera- 
tives? I am constrained to think that the auxiliary school teacher is 
not at all qualified to indicate exactly progress made in the depart- 
'ment of religion. In examining other branches of study one will 
come upon similar difficulties, and straightway speak of the trouble 
in making these reports in the auxiliary school. 

Although Lay does help the teacher out of this trouble, still many 
other difficulties remain unsolved by his plan. If only every teacher 
who fills out this “ personality list ” possessed all the psychological - 
insight which the composer of the questions presupposes! Besides 
this, the many-sidedness and breadth of the points of view may 
cause the old scruple to rise that more writing is required than is 
absolutely necessary. But perhaps Lay’s plan can be simplified and 
so made more practicable. Of course there is always the danger that 
an attempt at simplification will result only in abbreviating the 
logical structure and not in building it up anew. Still, if an attempt 
is made later it may at least incite others to continue the critical 
work. Perhaps at one of the future meetings of our auxiliary school 
association this important question, so vitally connected with the 
good of the auxiliary school, will be taken up and made the subject of 
general consideration. 

To begin with, the whole field included under Lay’s title of 
“physical qualities” may be taken away from the teacher and given 
to the school physician. The health record, as illustrated above, can 
at any time be consulted by the principal or teachers of the auxiliary 
school, so that the necessity of an isolated entry by the physician is 
excluded. So there remain only three main divisions for the teacher, 
the first of which, “inheritance,” is to be treated summarily. The 
other two are to be treated under the following heads: Environment 
(family and home) : 1, vocation; 2, food; 3, number of children; 4, 
illnesses; 5, parents’ views of life; 6, recreation, work, and associa- 
tions. Inheritance in sensory and motor fields: 1, physical and men- 
tal powers of resistance; 2, power of observation; 3, attention, mem- 
ory, special interests; 4, movements, skill, actions, speech; 5, traits of 
character. : 

It might be of interest to look again at the two pictures of pupils, 
which we already know, from the point of view of Lay’s proposals. 
In the broader framework, Agnes S. would appear as follows: 

I. A. S., born December 24, 1895, has evidently inherited the 
effects of alcoholism. 


72> _ THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


Il. Her father worked at odd jobs, and died under the influence 
of liquor. The mother, not of irreproachable reputation, married 
again, and this time an iron turner, who had often been punished for 
drunkenness. At present she lives separated from him. The food in 
the family has always been insufficient. The earnings do not yet 
permit any improvement. Of the five children born of the first 
marriage, three died young, of convulsions. The others suffered from 
all the usual children’s diseases. The mother, though not yet more 
than 40 years old, has been delicate since the birth of the last child. 
There is only one narrow sleeping room for the use of the whole 
family. For the two girls there is only one couch, which is far from 
being clean. Agnes gnashes her teeth in her sleep, and is very rest- 
less. During the whole time she is free from school she wanders 
about the streets with her sister; they are not required to work. The 
mother is not a model of industry or true motherhood. On the one 
side of her scale of educational means stand hard words and blows; 
on the other, pampering is considered to be a sign of mother love. 
Agnes joins her playmates on the street or in the yard for a little 
while; then she dreams by herself. Sometimes she embraces her 
comrades; again, she causes them to cry out by her scratching and 
biting. | 

III. As a result of insufficient nourishment, she is physically in- 
capable of resisting disease. We can only speak of her perseverance 
in mental lines when we mean her fixed tendency to do whatever is 
forbidden or unseemly. Beyond this, Agnes is easily tired out; she 
falls asleep during class instruction. Any development of talent is 
impossible, since she can not follow a train of thought or stick to one 
idea. At one time she is satisfied with her surroundings; at another, 
she is quarrelsome and peevish. On the slightest provocation her 
laughter changes to tears; she even laughs or cries sometimes without 
any apparent reason. She seems quite unreceptive of any educative 
influence, and has no sense of moral obligation. 

In size, Agnes is below the average of children of her age. In re- 
gard to general constitution, she belongs to the middle group. Size, 
chest measure, and weight do not reach the average. She has a promi- 
nent abdomen and a slight curvature of the spine; her walk is un- 
steady, awkward, and waddling. She squints with her left eye; 
otherwise eyes and ears are normal. She always keeps her mouth 
open in breathing; her palate is very convex. Her teeth are irregu- 
lar. Although no irregularity is found in the passages of the nose, 
her speech is very defective. 

It has been learned from the court records that an assault was 
attempted upon her. 

She receives impressions from the outer world only imperfectly. 
This defect does not arise from faulty sense organs, but is a result 





CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 73 


of mental restlessness. This restlessness causes an inattention and a 
transiency of ideas, which make continuous concentration upon an 
object or an occurrence impossible. Even if she seems to try to be 
attentive in the classes she is soon distracted. Any sound, a sun- 
beam, etc., throws the child into a new'train of thought. Therefore, 
her memory for words, relations of time and space, colors, and tones 
is exceptionally weak. Not less faulty is her ability to talk. Her 
interests are all those of the passing moment; permanent interests 
have no place in her life. Characteristic of ak a person is her 
mobility; she can keep her limbs quiet only a very short time. It 
seems as if the physical restlessness must correspond to the mental. 
Manual skill is not shown, either in feminine occupations or in model- 
ing or working with paper. This want of perseverance always se- 
verely tries the patience of the instructor. 

According to Lay’s shortened plan, another picture would take 
the following form: 

I. Inheritance: Otto B., born 1892; has evidently inherited tuber- 
culosis. 

II. Environment: The father, a laborer at odd jobs, died of con- 
sumption. The mother goes out washing every day from early morn- 
ing till late in the evening. She has had 12 children, 2 of whom died 
_ of convulsions while teething, 1 from premature bint, and a fourth 
died young, owing to a fall. Otto is the ninth child af the family. 
All the births were hard. Besides the prolonged illness of the father, 
there were many children’s diseases in the family. The parents 
have no idea of the duty of educating their children. Otto never 
knew the joys of family life. When with his playmates he is amiable 
just so long as he can play the part of leader. If he thinks he is 
getting the worst of it he avenges himself on those who seem to be 
gaining the advantage over him. He is fond of doing mischief, 
catching on street cars, and now and again he steals fruit from the 
stands. Since his mother lives on the outskirts of the city, he wan- 
ders about a great deal. 

III. Inheritance in sensory and motor fields: Through being out of 
doors a great deal Otto has become very strong, and can walk the long 
distance to and from school without showing noticeable signs of 
fatigue. But in the mental field it is different. Many days his inner 
life seems to be quite extinguished. What he must have known and 
what must have interested him does not exist for him at all in a short 
space of time. Then, however, his latent mind awakens and he ap- 
pears again as a bright scholar. He can extend his field of observa- 
tion very quickly. Asa real street urchin he observes closely every 
occurrence on the street which interests him at all. Already he 
knows, too, the value of money. He prefers to spend his spare mo- 
ments earning money by performing little services. The seventh 


74 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


commandment is especially hard for him to keep. He is agile at run- 
ning and climbing. THis speech is not normal. In the first place, he 
pays little attention to the proper formation of sounds and sometimes 
stammers. Again, he leaves out words here and there or puts them 
in their wrong places in the sentence. At heart Otto is a kind, good- 
natured little fellow. Punishments, however, make him sullen and 
defiant. He is most of all affected if his school companions show 
malicious pleasure at his punishments. In these cases he acts 
impulsively. 3 

His physical constitution may, in general, be called good. In size, 
chest measure, and weight he is above the average. In chest, abdo- 
men, spine, and the appearance of the skin there is nothing peculiar 
to be noticed. His eyes are astigmatic. The oculist ordered glasses 
for him, and these very materially improved his sight. His ears are 
normal. He is a mouth breather, and speaks hoarsely and slovenly. 

Otto B. belongs to those types who know how to enrich their inner 
life from the impressions of the outer world. As long as the subject- 
matter of instruction is concrete, he is attentive; but lessons com- 
mitted to memory he can not be trusted to recollect. His defective 
speech can not, indeed, give him the necessary help. Special inter- 
ests or abilities which might give hints as to a future vocation have 
not yet appeared. His activity, which is often uncontrollable, can 
not be regarded as a diseased condition of the muscles. In his con- 
duct he is in danger of going wrong just as soon as he knows that he 
is not watched. 

Even in this short characterization there may be many a super- 
fluous remark; on the other hand, this or that characteristic point 
may be missing. It is very hard to draw successfully a pupil’s pic- 
ture, harder perhaps than to show in his proper colors the external 


man.- Therefore repeated consultation in professional circles is very » 


necessary in order to improve the work. And how important this 
matter is! ‘Think, in the first place, of the auxiliary school teacher! 
Since he has this advantage over the teacher of the regular school, 
that he is educator first of all, and only after that instructor, so the 
opportunity of gaining a basis for his educative measures by means 
of the personal record must be very welcome. That he can now lay 
this foundation himself, increases its value for him. Further, every 
stage of the building from this foundation is a test of its accuracy. 
Of course this kind of guaranty must not lead him to the conviction 
that, since some of the premises are correct, divers conclusions can in 
all cases be taken for granted. And yet by constant observation and 
consideration, and by carefully adding and taking away little points, 
a picture can be formed which justifies the teacher in his medico- 
pedagogical treatment of the child. And this justification secures 
~ an ease of mind which raises him in his work far above many who call 


CHARACTERIZATION OF PUPILS. 75 


themselves teachers. It gives him that pleasure, too, which is always 
found in scientific research, for every successful pupil characteriza- 
tion serves in its small way the great purpose which the study of the 
evolution of man has set up. 

But it would be only pampering the vanity of the auxiliary school 
teacher to say that the highest value of the personal record was to be 
found on this side. AIl auxiliary school work is first and foremost 
to serve the pupils. By all this tedious work the teacher should first 
become really acquainted with his pupils, in order that he may then 
properly judge and treat them. This aim is essential for any 
teacher who has to influence a pupil. However, it is also important 
for any other person who has occasion to work with the child in the 
school. They all take up the work of others, continue the observa- 
tions, and test and complete them, so that finally at the end of the 
school period a fairly complete picture has been made. 

But it is not alone during the school period that the auxiliary 
school pupil is to be judged and treated properly. His whole life 
long he is entitled to special consideration on the part of others. 
Therefore at the end of his school career, as occasion requires, em- 
ployers and military and court authorities are to be informed of 
the existence of a personal record. Unfortunately these people are 
still very ignorant of the use of this record. They all wish, more 
or less, to have numbers, which seem to be no source of trouble to 
them, as a summary of the acquirements of the school work, while 
the more elaborate verbal picture of the pupil causes them to first 
form a judgment, and therefore seems troublesome. If all would 
agree to send half-yearly reports to the parents of auxiliary school 
pupils, as is done at Plauen,‘ in order to keep before them that which 
is characteristic of their children, employers and military and court 
authorities would gradually have to learn to make use of these per- 
sonal records in forming judgments. To make it simpler, the aux- 
iliary school teacher or principal can make out an extract which 
presents briefly the points desired for each particular case. Thus a 





a Half-yearly statement to parents. 


[Certificate in words and an expression to the parents of the teacher’s wishes. ] 


Absences: Excused, . Unexcused,._.__-__.--- 
Auxiliary school (six-graded, regular folk school) at Plauen i. V., Michaelmas, 
19... 





, Teacher. 








(Signature of father or guardian.) 


76 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


statement would have to be made out for an employer (of a servant, 
etc.) different from that for a master (of an apprentice). The mili- 
tary authorities lay stress on different points from the courts. But 
what has been so carefully worked out must find appreciation in 
the quarter where appreciation is due. Unfortunately there are still 
plenty of examples to show how little the humane, yet real, work of 
the auxiliary. school is appreciated. When people more generally 
know what pains the auxiliary school workers take to get clear, ob- 
jective pictures, and when the practical value of this careful work 
is seen, then the time will have come when a proper value will be 
placed on individual characterizations. Many a bitter experience, 
many serious results of disregarding what the auxiliary school could 
foretell, will point directly to the value of its work. Elsewhere we 
shall show more fully what an important place the auxiliary school, 
especially in connection with these pupil pictures, has to fill as a 
social organization. 





VII.—THE BUILDING FOR THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 


Since the auxiliary school is the newest of all kinds of school in 
any town, and always requires less space than the regular school, peo- 
ple are not at all worried when it is given only indifferent accom- 
modations. Generally it is established in. connection with a folk 
school and given rooms which are not needed by it. It must find a 
place as best it can. 

Poor quarters, however, do not always mean that the city authori- 
ties wish to put the school in a Cinderella position. They really 
can not act otherwise. Finances in large cities are rigorously admin- 
istered, and the ideal conditions for a school organization which is 
still only in the stage of development, as is the auxiliary school at 
present, can not so easily be secured, and yet they must be striven 
after. What, then, would be suitable quarters for an auxiliary 
school? How could it be best fitted up? 

The situation of auxiliary school classes in a district is governed 
mainly by the size of the district and the location of those parts 
where the workingmen live. <A smaller community will probably 
found its first and perhaps only permanent special class in or near 
the folk schoolhouse. When the district is quite large, it is advisable 
to have two classes or groups of classes, one at each end of the dis- 
trict, so that the children may not have to come too far to school. 
For the sake of the school government, however, it will be desirable 
that a number of classes should be built up into a whole school before 
other combinations of classes are planned. There may be, however, 
two auxiliary schools in a town under separate management; the 
number of pupils, of course, determines the kind of organization. 





THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL BUILDING. 77 


If, however, the special classes would fill a whole schoolhouse, the 
city authorities would have to decide to erect a special building for 
the auxiliary school. If those who own the land do not demand too 
much for it, a favorable location can be selected. The best situation 
is near the homes of the working people and at the same time near 
some gardens. Besides the school building, a gymnasium should be 
erected on this piece of land and these buildings should border on 
playgrounds and a school garden. 

The auxiliary school building, provided with living rooms for the 
school principal and the janitor, should be a model institution as far 
as hygienic conditions are concerned. The heating, ventilating, and 
latrines should be according to the best approved systems. The floors 
of the halls and rooms should be covered with linoleum, and the 
class rooms, especially for the younger pupils, are best if arranged 
in the form of an amphitheater, with suitable seating accommoda- 
tions. 

In addition to well-lighted class rooms the school should have a 
bathroom, an infirmary, and a workshop. In connection with the 
bathroom there should be dressing rooms. Enough showers should 
be supplied so that all the boys or all the girls may bathe at once. 
The floor of the bathroom should be warmed and so arranged as to 
prevent slipping. 

The room for the infirmary must be large enough to be used for 
vaccinations and all examinations of the pupils. From time to time 
those needing special attention or those who have fallen in a faint 
or epileptics may be brought here. For this purpose mattresses 
should be provided. A medicine cabinet should contain all kinds of 
bandages, restoratives, and antiseptics ready for use. All the appa- 
ratus necessary for the doctor’s examination of the pupils should be 
kept here, too. 

The workshops should be’ fitted up for modeling and for paper 
and wood work. For these purposes tables and stools should be pro- 
vided, as well as chests for the material, for tools, and for overalls, 
aprons, etc. A joiner’s bench and a turning lathe should also be 
included in the equipment. 

Tt is well to connect the gymnasium with the school by means of 
a corridor, so that the children can take their walks in any kind of 
weather. In the gymnasium, as well as in the schoolhouse itself, 
many wall mottoes and pictures should be hung up, in order to make 
the time spent in the school as pleasant and stimulating as possible. 
The same apparatus can not be used in this gymnasium as in a regu- 
lar school gymnasium. Here it is a case of hygienic gymnastics and 
requires special apparatus. .As an aid to exercises done together a 
musical instrument should be provided. The auxiliary school must 
have a playground and a school garden at its disposal, too, Sand 


78 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


piles make good play centers, and garden beds offer splendid oppor- 
tunities for the care and culture of useful and decorative plants. 
Finally aquaria, caterpillar collections, and terraria may be placed 
on the window sills in order to teach the pupils how to care for 
animals. 





VITI.—CLASSIFICATION OF PUPILS IN AN AUXILIARY 
SCHOOL, AND THE NUMBER IN EACH CLASS. 


After thus giving the main requirements for an ideal schoolhouse, 
the next question to be answered is: How are the pupils to be classi- 
fied? Whoever has watched the development of an auxiliary school 
in one of the larger cities will realize how long a time is needed 
before the weakly endowed pupils can be separated into several 
classes. Hence every incipient auxiliary school must have only one 
class for a number of years. In this case the teacher will have to 
group them in some way, but even with hard work will seem to accom- 
plish very little. For in order that this new special organization may 
become a part of the city school system and be shown to be highly 
necessary, the auxiliary school teacher must receive all those pupils 
whom the public school can and must discard. 

Everywhere the problem has to be solved as to what pupils shall 
be admitted to the auxiliary school. In Halle this part of the devel- 
opment of the organization progressed quite slowly, and we may 
assume that in other places there will be the same difficulty. Grad- 
ually and carefully the pupils are sifted out, and so the picture 
changes. When the city administration is once convinced that it is 
not absolutely necessary that there should be pronounced weakness 
of mind nor very marked signs of abnormal development before a 
pupil can be admitted to the auxiliary school, then the meshes of the 
sieve gradually become larger, and the expansion of a special class 
into an auxiliary school comes about as a necessary and natural 
result. Even here one must make haste slowly. Possibly this period 
of development is shorter nowadays, and the desired goal is reached 
more quickly. But everywhere we must begin with the auxiliary 
school of a single class. How many pupils, however, would it be 
proper to put in a class, and how many classes should there be in a 
fully developed auxiliary school? 

Since each class of an auxiliary school makes up a portion of the 
expenditure of a city community, it is hard for people to come to 
see that the auxiliary school pupils can really gain benefit from the 
school work only if they are placed in very small classes. The Prus- 
sian minister of education in his publication of June 16, 1894 (men- 
tioned in Chapter I), recommends that city communities should 
never allow the number of pupils in an auxiliary class to exceed 








CLASSIFICATION OF PUPILS. 79 


25. His purpose, in my opinion, is not to frighten the cities away 
from their praiseworthy efforts to help on the auxiliary school sys- 
tem. Behind his statement lie financial considerations; were it not 
for these he certainly would have lowered the number very materially. 

This ministerial pronouncement has-unfortunately been taken as 
an official norm in many a community, and they like to stick to the 
number 25. If, however, the teacher wishes to give individual 
instruction, the number of pupils in a class must be less than 25. 
This is especially necessary in the lower classes; there not more than 
15 pupils should really be taught together. There are already some 
cities which declare this size of class proper and have introduced 
it into their schools. It were to be wished that other cities would 
follow their example, until finally it would be the rule everywhere 
that not more than 15 pupils were found in the lower classes of the 
auxiliary school, 20 in the intermediate, and 25 in the higher. 

In this statement the membership of the auxiliary school has been 
implied. This is largely determined by the size of the place. And 
yet, on the other hand, we can not say that the size of the place abso- 
lutely determines the number of pupils. Approximate statistics show 
that on an average one-half of 1 per cent of the population of a city 
is made up of weak-minded children. Ina city of 100,000 inhabitants, 
then, there would be 500 pupils for an auxiliary school. Fortunately 
this estimate does not always hold good; out of 160,000 inhabitants, 
Halle has only admitted 210 to 225 children to its auxiliary school; 
Mannheim, a city of almost the same size, cared for only 67 auxiliary 
school pupils in the year 1903-4.* So size alone can not determine the 
number of pupils in an auxiliary school. Other factors play a part, 
too. 

But the conditions in Mannheim can not be taken as decisive here, 
because, as we have shown elsewhere, their admission procedure dif- 
fers from that of Halle. A glance at Wintermann’s Survey of Ger- 
man Auxiliary Schools and Auxiliary Classes (published in 1903) 
would give us more definite information. The industrial towns, as 
Aix la Chapelle, Barmen, Brunswick, Chemnitz, Cologne, Diissel- 
dorf, Elberfeld, and many others, send more pupils to the auxiliary 
school than other cities whose population is not made up largely of 
workmen. Thus the kind of inhabitants and their vocations and 
manner of life have more influence upon the number of pupils in an 
auxiliary school than the size of the city. 

Suppose, then, that in a city there are 100 or more pupils to be edu- 
cated in an auxiliary school. How should the organization of the 





@ In the current year about 99 children attend the Mannheim auxiliary school. 
This is about 0.6 per cent of the total number of school children. There are six 
classes in the auxiliary school, 


80 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


school proceed? Though there will be all possible variations in the 


answer to this question, one thing may be taken as generally recog- 


nized and agreed to, namely, the weakest children who have not yet 
been to school must first be brought together and a kind of prelimi- 
nary grade formed. This preparatory grade can be in one or two 
classes. In this division children will first be made ready for school 
work and taught to talk properly. What form the further establish- 
ment of the auxiliary school must take depends not alone on the 
pupils, but also upon the room, accommodations, etc., at their disposal. 
In one city, three further stages are added to the preliminary one; in 
another, four, or even six. In still other places there is a tendency to 
establish a class for every school year, as is done in the regular school. 
But eight classes could really not be formed in the auxiliary school, 


for many children have lost one or two years in fruitless attendance | 


on the folk school. Besides, only few children go through all the 
classes of an auxiliary school. But the auxiliary school should have 
as many divisions as possible, and no class should have more than 
two sections. 3 | 

The question of organization demands consideration from two 
points of view, namely, consideration of the religion and of the sex 
of the auxiliary school pupils. Fortunately, there have as yet been 
no quarrels in the auxiliary school over the predominance of one or 
the other religious belief among the pupils. Action springing from 
love for mankind in general is bound to no dogma. Consequently 
it will not be necessary to divide the children according to their 
- beliefs. Whenever parents or the clergy of a city desire to have the 
denominational feature preserved in the instruction, the religious 
instruction of the child in question must be left to his denominational 
preceptors, as in the regular school. Experience, however, has taught 
that very seldom or never do parents or clergy insist on this right. 


Especially if the religious instruction avoids all dogmas (and this ~ 


is very necessary in the auxiliary school), the evangelical and the 
Catholic child can attend the classes in religion together without 
friction until they reach the age of confirmation. 

Just as little as religious faith can the sex of the pupils make de- 
mands upon the school organization. Whether it has been from 
economical or pedagogical considerations, coeducation in the auxil- 
iary school has beeen regarded as essential and helpful from the very 
first. Here, then, the problem of coeducation has been quickly solved, 
and no one has yet found moral or other dangers for those boys and 
girls who are taught together. 


ee 


THE DAILY PROGRAMME. 81 


IX.—_THE DAILY PROGRAMME. 


Even in the regular school it is a difficult matter to plan a schedule 
of exercises which fulfills the demands of hygiene and at the same 
time answers the purposes of the school. With the very best inten- 
tions it will not always be possible to absolutely subordinate the latter 
to the former. Besides, in spite of the activity of physicians and 
school people who are working’ in this field, there is still little agree- 
ment when it comes to answering the following questions: What 
studies evidently tire the pupil most, and what are sure methods of 
recognizing and determining the intensity of fatigue? Names like 
Kraepelin, Ebbinghaus, Lobsien, and Baur, who have made work and 
fatigue in general the subject of their research; Erismann, Burger- 
stein, and Schiller, who have included the division and length of 
recesses in their sphere of work, as well as the order of lessons—these 
names can serve as proof of this. But it is assumed as a matter of 
course that weak-minded children show fatigue and exhaustion sooner 
than normal children. There has been therefore little accurate re- 
search in regard to auxiliary school pupils. 

The lesson periods in the auxilfary school are of course shorter than 
those in a regular school. Indeed, in many cases only half an hour 
is given to each lesson. Further, the arrangement of subjects has 
been carefully considered; difficult studies should alternate with 
- easier ones. So subjects which require special mental effort and deal 
more or less with abstractions should not follow one another. As a 
rule these are separated by introducing technical work, but some 
kinds of technical work, too, are specially tiring for auxiliary school 
pupils; consequently, great care must be used in making a choice. 
If general principles can be set up at all to guide in the arrangement 
of the programme the following may perhaps be of service: 

1. The lessons of the day should be arranged according to the 
amount of mental energy of the pupil required on each. 

2. The first lessons in the morning should not always make the 
greatest demands upon the pupil. 

_ 8. If one subject has specially stimulated one side of the child 
nature, the following should waken the other side, which up to this 
point has not been active. 

Beyond these few general rules the teacher should be free to 
change the daily programme in accordance with his discoveries and 
experiences in the class. For it often happens that pupils come to 
school half asleep and are then quite unfit for arithmetic or religious 
reflection; a walk is at such times much more useful than forced in- 
struction in the school. 

14659—_07——6 


82 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


In auxiliary school literature a fourth, fifth, and sixth point is’ 
often deemed authoritative in determining the school programme, as 
follows: 

4. The demand is made that in all classes:the same subjects be 
taught at the same hours. If, then, in one class arithmetic is assigned 
to a certain hour, arithmetic must be written down in the programme 
for the same hour in all the other classes. This is necessary, they 
say, on account of the peculiar abilities of the children; for many a 
pupil can read but poorly, while he can talk quite well. Others can 
advance quite normally in arithmetic, while lack of ‘progress in speak- 
ing and narrating keeps them far behind their fellow pupils. Shall 
a pupil, so they argue, be kept back on account of deficiencies in one 
subject, when he can accomplish more than the others, perhaps, in 
other lines of work? Rather let each pupil advance in every sepa- 
rate study according to his special ability. Taking it for granted 
that all the auxiliary school classes are assembled in one building 
and that the programme is arranged as indicated, the pupil can go 
into that class in reading or arithmetic, for example, which corre- 
sponds to his knowledge or ability. In the other subjects the child 
remains in his own class and advances there with his own classmates. 

This arrangement may have the advantage that individual talents 
of a child can be brought to a certain development, that it can cipher 
or read or narrate better than if it had advanced more slowly with its 
classmates. But what do these single accomplishments signify when 
compared with his backwardness in other branches? If a general 
advance were only combined with this other! And what restless- 
ness would come into the school! This wandering from one class to 
another induces a moving about without restraint which tends to 
make the school unsettled and so almost excludes any permanent edu- 
cative influence. 

5. The auxiliary school must, further, finish with its lessons in the 
morning and avoid afternoon instruction. This demand, which has 
lately been so strongly urged in connection with the regular schools 
of our larger cities, has especial significance for the auxiliary school. 
The auxiliary school pupils, in larger cities at least, have as a 
rule a long way to go from home, because their school is the only one 
in the place, and long walks to school are recognizedly a burden 
under which delicate children very evidently suffer. Anyone who 
has watched the children of the auxiliary school on their way to 
school through a large city will be loath to require this of them twice 
a day. Of course it can not always be helped in the higher classes. 
An afternoon will have to be added if 32 lessons a week are to be 
secured. In such cases, as in case of weak and delicate pupils, the 
school directors can relieve the situation to some extent. They may 
gain the consent of the city to allow those auxiliary school pupils 


THE CURRICULUM. 83 


who are evidently kept back in their school work on account of the 
long walk to school to ride on the street cars at expense of the city. 

6. Finally, intermissions in the auxiliary school’s daily programme 
must be more carefully considered than for the regular school. Gen- 
erally these recesses are from fifteen to'twenty minutes long. How- 
ever, the main thing is not that during a succession of five lessons 
_ lengthy and frequent pauses be made. Still more important is it 
that these pauses should really be used to refresh and enliven the 
weak pupils. They should breathe pure air free from dust, eat their 
luncheon, and move their limbs unrestrainedly by playing together 
_ or separately. To help them thus enjoy these recesses, the teacher in 
charge must always be on the watch. Here he has rich opportunity 
to make important observations and render valuable service to his 
coworkers. 





X.—THE CURRICULUM. 


For the public school it is no easy matter to answer all the many 

questions which arise in connection with the curriculum; especially 
do the choice and arrangement of the subject-matter, as the most 
important problems of this field, demand much discussion in order to 
reach any satisfactory solution. The pedagogy of the auxiliary 
school can claim still greater difficulty. The great differences exist- 
ing among the pupils’ natures give rise at the outset to the question: 
Is it possible to have a course of study for the auxiliary school which 
shall be adapted to the so-called average intellect? Of course, even 
if we can not, in this discussion, reach any definite, valid conclusion 
regarding particular points, we must recognize the necessity of a plan 
of work even if it be only in broad outline, for without this no con- 
scious, and so no successful, work can be accomplished. 
_ Formerly it was mainly public school teachers who attempted to 
draw up courses of study; their work betrayed its origin. They had 
generally brought with them from the public school a love of the 
subject-matter which was too great for the auxiliary school. Natu- 
rally a great deal of the subject-matter of the public school can not 
be introduced into the auxiliary school. So they simply took up the 
scissors and cut off a piece here and there—wherever there seemed 
too much. But in spite of this the worshipper of subject-matter still 
demanded his sacrifice. 

Now, on the other hand, when teachers from institutions giving 
instruction in hygiene set to work to make a plan they are sure to 
fail, because they wish to have too little material. Naturally for- 
mation of habit seems more important to them than learning, educa- 
tion more valuable than mere instruction; and yet the auxiliary 

































84 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


school should, first of all, be a school in which stress is laid upon 
knowing many things, even if within narrow limits. So the auxil-— 
lary school curriculum must have neither too much nor too little 
material. 

But how much material should it demand? No one will require © 
the auxiliary school to set the same goal for itself as the highest class — 
of the normal or regular school—not even a teacher who has com- 
pletely fallen prey to didactic materialism. | 

Then let us lower our demands in general and ask only that the — 
goal of the middle grade of a folk school be reached. This demand, 
so often expressed, has much in its favor. It emphasizes at the start — 
that the standard is to be kept low. But, on the other hand, it can 
be said that the middle grade of a folk school does not attain all 
those several goals which the auxiliary school pupil can reach who 
meets with some little success. Let one only think of the realistic 
subjects which must be pursued further in the auxiliary school than 
in the middle grade of a folk school. Thus we see that it is not so 
easy to set, even in the most general way, a goal for auxiliary school 
work. To make any progress at all we must first be perfectly clear 
as to the answer to this question: What is, on the whole, the pur- 
pose of the auxiliary school ? 

The auxiliary school is an independent institution of education 
and instruction. It aims to develop in its pupils a standard of con- © 
duct which shall not differ from that of a worthy and useful mem- 4% 
ber of human society. To. this end all those subjects of instruction 
should be introduced into the auxiliary school which tend to awaken 
and control the individual will and impulses to action. According to 
their nature, such material must mainly be chosen from these subjects — 
as will pave the way to a comprehension of a worthy, purposeful life. 
Through such a choice overcrowding of the curriculum is prevented, 
as well as mere preparation for a possible vocation. ‘Taking this, 
then, as our general aim, we can now proceed to assign the scope of 
the several subjects: 

1. Religion: The auxiliary school pupil must be led to an appre- 
hension of the Divine. His duties to his neighbor and to himself, as 
well as to God, are to be brought to his comprehension. As an aid to 
his moral and religious feelings and actions he must accept the most 7 
important truths of Christianity, so as to be ready for confirmation 
in church. : 

2. By practice in observation, speaking, reading, and writing, he 
should be helped to understand and reproduce orally and in writing 
whatever he has seen, heard, or experienced. 

3. History: By studying the lives of men and women who have 
worthily served home and fatherland, he should be taught to be 

willing to sacrifice anything for home and country. From a du 





THE CURRICULUM. 85 


estimation of the present the problems arising out of it for each 
auxiliary school pupil are to be solved. 

4, Drawing is to be used in every class as a means of expressing 
what the pupil has seen and heard. As such it offers a standard by 
which progress in intellectual and esthetic fields can be measured. 

5. Manual labor: Like drawing, manual training, with its various 
branches, should direct the activities of auxiliary school pupils into 
those lines opened up by the other studies, and should facilitate the 
choice of a vocation later in life. 

6. Singing and gymnastics: Both these departments have in the 
first place special hygienic purposes. Then, however, together they 
regulate, especially by their rhythmical’ character, the movements 
and with these the volitional life of the pupil. Finally, their com- 
mon esthetic and recreative influence must not be undervalued. 

7. Home geography (Heimatkunde) and general geography: The 
auxiliary school pupil is first of all to be made acquainted with his 
home surroundings; nevertheless, he must not be ignorant of any 
parts of the world with which his home has lively intercourse. 

8. Arithmetic: Instruction in arithmetic shall present and show 
_ the application of those simple problems which are most often needed 
in daily life. 

9. Natural history and nature study: The change of seasons is to 
be observed in the child’s surroundings and the human body is to be 
made a subject of study, in the interest of his self-preservation and 
his life in common with others. 

Having thus stated the aims of each subject, we must consider 
' what subjects should come together and what should be the order of 
succession. Even if the old saying still holds good in the auxiliary 
school, “ Proceed from the simple to the difficult,” yet the simple 
must always predominate in the choice of material. A mastery of the 
_ whole of the elementary subject-matter of the folk school is not to 
be thought of. But in the arrangement of even the simple material 
the striving toward a whole, the outlook toward something complete, 
must be evident. Even if only small domains of thought can be 
mastered, they must be domains of thought which are connected with 
the developing, growing self, so that they form a foundation for the 
building up of moral and religious personality. But for this, it is 
not necessary that religious or objective fields should predominate 
and all others be subordinate to these. ‘Triiper undertakes, it is true, 
and very laudably, to let the culture epochs, as worked out by Rein, 
act as centers around which the work is to be concentrated. So for 
children from 8 to 10 years old Robinson Crusoe is chosen as the 
basis of instruction in nature study, home geography, as well as for 
modeling, drawing, singing, German, and arithmetic. Fuchs recom- 
mends Robinson Crusoe as a suitable center for the concentration of 


86 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


the auxiliary school pupils’ studies, and really, if you have in mind 
training for work and for will power and control, you must agree 
with this recommendation. Robinson Crusoe is a classical model for 
the auxiliary school pupil with a weak will. But his example has 
more evident influence in a secluded educational institution than in a 
public school. The pupils of the latter already see too much of the 
world about them, with its devices and expedients. Asa result, Rob- 
inson Crusoe does not concern them so much in his original helpless- 
ness as we should like to think. Taking into consideration the fact 
that many subjects do not adapt themselves to such correlation, but 
must be treated independently, as history and arithmetic with relig- 
ion, we see that it is impossible to present plans for concentration as 
closely connected, organically related wholes. It will be difficult to 
make the auxiliary school pupil comprehend social aggregations in 
his vicinity which may, perhaps, be easily seen, such as the groupings 
of family, work, trade, etc. If, however, such social groups with 
their common needs are indicated in the plan of studies as home phe- 
nomena, and further appear more clearly in the plan of subject- 
matter, the auxiliary school is thereby preparing for practical life by 
giving circles of thought which are to a certain extent complete, and 
therefore effective. This completeness is as difficult as it is necessary. 
Whoever has undertaken to make a sketch of a curriculum or a 
course of study will confirm this and know that up to this time no 
model of value has been furnished. No individual worker will be 
able, on the whole, to solve the problem of the curriculum. Much 
preliminary work is lacking—for instance, there is no suitable read- 
ing book,* primer, or arithmetic for the auxiliary school. Therefore 
the staff of an auxiliary school must annually consult together and 
decide what is to be accomplished by the different classes and each 
half year select subjects of study for them. This laborious work will 
gradually lead not only to a single core of material, but also to a rich 
selection of reading and memory pieces and arithmetical problems, 
which can finally be included in a reader and a sum book. How far 
this work has progressed at Halle may be seen from the following 
plans for the first and last school years. (See pp. 88-91.) 

A course of study for the last school year presents the most diffi- 
culties and is therefore in its aims easily modified. If success has 
been met with in giving it a local and home background, then at 
least one kind of unity has been effected. The discovery of further 
threads of connection between the individual subjects must be held 
in reserve until it is more fully worked out, as by good fortune can 
be done on a uniform plan in the auxiliary school. 

When we compare the requirements of the course of study in the 
finishing class with the ability of the pupils of the auxiliary school 





aAttempts have already been made at Leipzig and in Switzerland. 





———eeeeeeeeeorererereeeeeeoorrerrrrorereee 


THE CURRICULUM. 87 


and see how high the final goals are set in one auxiliary school and. 
~ how low in another, we must here express a wish that a unity may be 
evolved from out of this diversity. In this striving we must also 
decide whether the auxiliary school has to make provision for an 
education designed to help the girls for-domestic service and to pre- 
pare the boys for manual labor. Finally, this question must be 
answered : How is the course of study of the auxiliary school to make 
room for that work which has to do with correcting errors in speak- 
ing, since we know a great many of the abnormal pupils frequently 
suffer from inability to speak properly. ‘There has been introduced 
into many auxiliary schools special drill in articulation. In this re- 
gard the instructions of the Gutzmzenns, of Berlin (father and son), 
certainly have a value. It may be well, also, to call favorably to 
mind at this time the prevailing practice which Auxiliary School 
Principal Godtfring, of Kiel, has introduced in the province of 
Schleswig-Holstein. Godtfring, who has also repeatedly published 
articles touching these matters, arranges to correct the speech of the 
children even before they reach school age. He gathers together into 
a sort of speech kindergarten all those children who do not speak 
normally and who will be of school age within half a year. Gradu- 
ally he separates from these all those who, in spite of opportunity 
and drill in technical methods of speaking, are not cured of stam- 
mering and stuttering. The latter then are put into courses for 
curative pedagogical treatment, and in case of relapse after being 
cured are placed in the so-called “ repetition ” course for individual 
instruction. Godtfring’s plan, which must have a special value in 
the auxiliary school, has the active 2 BEDPOF of the school authorities 
in Schleswig Holstein, 





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89 


THE CURRICULUM. 














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THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


90 


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91 


THE CURRICULUM. 





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92 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


XI—METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 


Before we can present the methods of teaching used in the auxiliary 
school we must show how much time each branch of study may claim 
during the week. This will be most quickly done by giving a sum- 
mary in the form of a table. In the auxiliary school at Halle we 
have used the following plan: 


Hours per week given to the several branches of study in the auwiliary school 














at Halle. 
Class. 
Branches of study. 
I II Iii. IV V 

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In the summer term a slight change is made on account of instruc- 
tion in agriculture. The number of hours for hand work, gymnastic 
exercises, and singing is shortened so that four hours a week are left 
for garden work; the school excursions, too, often disarrange the 
tabulated numbers. 

If the instruction given in the higher classes is considered, scarcely 
any difference will be noticed between the methods of the auxiliary 
school and those of the regular school; the intermediate classes have 
much the same management as that which promises success in the 
lower grades of the folk school; in the lower classes, however, the 
instruction given in the auxiliary school must be quite peculiar to it. 
The characteristic points of auxiliary school instruction have been 
clothed in many imperatives, as the instruction must be objective, 
concrete, personal, etc. However, these imperatives should apply to 
all instruction. In the lower classes of the auxiliary school the 
teacher has still other considerations to occupy him. The children 
just transferred from the regular to the auxiliary school are either 


incapable of receiving instruction, or are completely tired of school. 


Then he has not merely to awaken powers, but also to prevent many 
an intermitted development from remaining at a standstill. Besides 
this, he must see to it that his instruction has an educative influence 
upon the pupil, and this while he simplifies the subject-matter as 
much as possible. To fulfill these three demands in detail is very 


es 








METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 93 


hard, and yet we must strive to do this if we would make our auxil- 
iary school instruction successful. 

If mental powers are to be aroused, we must begin with that which 
stimulates them spontaneously and yet harmoniously, i. e., play. And 
it must be, of course, play which teaches the children so to use their 
limbs and sense organs that they will later obey a rational will and 
lead to such a doing of work as will effect the desired purpose. If 
one were to begin by making definite demands upon the will and to 
do work, his misdirected efforts would result only in frightening and 
dulling the pupil. The spontaneous use of limbs and sense organs 
first leads the teacher to take the proper direction. At this point he 
sees clearly how far—to agree with Boodstein—the limbs of a pupil 
are free in their movements and to what extent the sense organs can 
serve his attention by making his impressions precise and definite. 
Therefore we must first exercise the limbs by means of interesting 
plays, explore the circle of ideas and the powers of the will, that we 
may then proceed systematically to finally awaken the soul’s slum- 
bering powers.? 

. These are then guided in various directions, as in that of speaking, 
drawing or painting, modeling or stick laying. -Speech often be- 
comes intelligible and fluent only after long-continued instruction in 
articulation; for this the teacher requires special preparation. 
Drawing or painting gives a still more exact test of what the pupil 
has taken in through his senses than speaking does. When no great 
demands are made upon him, fear is banished from his mind, and 
even the most easily discouraged pupil will soon try to do something. 
Therefore, after a short time the teacher can discover from what he 
has done what sort of a mind the little artist with the slate pencil 
has; and the teacher will see, too, the progress the pupil is making, 
if his drawings are collected and made into a book. 

Similar insight into the inner life of the pupil is given by model- 
ing, though this is a great deal more difficult. For this reason it is 
often left out of the school work; it is important, however, and an 
attempt should be made to introduce it even into the lowest class. 
Stick laying is, indeed, much simpler; the Froebelian occupations in 
connection with the “ gifts” are similarly easy. How active are the 
little minds when they can do something, accomplish something! 
They must be kept continually active during the lessons, must always 
be seeing, observing, feeling, measuring, placing, arranging, compar- 
ing, distinguishing, hearing, smelling, or tasting, whatever the work 





@Delitzsch recommends an exact psychological diagnosis in order to find out 
definitely regarding defects in the senses, i. e., of sight, touch, hearing, taste, 
smell, the feeling of heat, cold, or pain, as well as a diagnosis of the associa- 
tion of ideas, speech, and the emotional and volitional life. 


94 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


may be. At the same time they must be allowed to talk. While 


playing at work and working at play they should express their opin- 
ions, ask questions, and give answers. 

If during the child’s instruction he is striving to seek and to find, 
and to change, his impressions into action, into movements, then the 
auxiliary school instruction serves a double purpose: (1) It avoids 
mere mechanical training and reducing to a uniform level; (2) it 
develops the motor center of the brain as the basis of the intellectual, 
and especially of the volitional, life. -The children are then not 
merely receptive, passive, but always active and interested. They 
live through in a measure what the instruction offers them. This is 
the case in the school garden and the school excursions even more 
than in the class room, and there can not possibly be too many of these 
excursions. The teacher has but few devices to help him in such 
instruction ; playthings and Froebelian “ gifts ” are probably his only 
helpers during the first school year. Outside of these the teacher must 
be all in all to his pupils. Therefore his task is not easy. Even the 
primer is lacking, which so early pushes itself in between the teacher 
of the regular school and his pupils as a dividing wall of paper. 
- Long may it be kept out of the lowest class of the auxiliary school! 
There nothing should be read, written, or memorized which might be 
found in a primer. Now, is the pupil not to read so soon, and write, 
and memorize poems? If there is to be no drill in the auxiliary 
school, then postpone the “ drei Eisheiligen ”* as long as possible, 
for they soon kill the happy life—the cheerfulness—of the school. It 
would probably be early enough if reading and writing were intro- 
duced in the second year in connection with block and stick laying: 
The memorizing of stories and poems can also be left till later if we 
would continue to shield the children from indigestible “ pebble- 
stones ” (Iieselsteine), i. e., give them bread instead of stones. If, 
however, one desires to exercise the memory of the pupils, suitable 
selections must be made, and an eagerness to learn them awakened in 
the children. Trojan, Lowenstein, and others give excellent short 
poems in their collections (Kinderlieder, Kindergarten, or Kinder- 
lauben). 

In this way, and by this method, the teacher may hope to awaken 
the weak little minds. For those pupils, however, who already have 
suffered shipwreck in their school life, and of whom people have 
not hesitated to declare that their mental development was at a 
standstill, another method of teaching must be chosen. For these 
pupils the instruction must be such as will take right hold of their 





@ This expression refers to the cold and blighting weather which popular tra- 
dition assigns to the 11th, 12th, and 13th of May. The cold of these saints’ 
days is frequently disastrous to budding fruit.—TRANSLATOR. 


CC 

















METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 95 


minds. ‘Therefore, for this purpose nothing colorless must be pre- 
sented; the teacher must either proceed from the pupil’s previous 
experiences, or make the pupil live through the experiences of others 
by a progressive portrayal of them. Of course, play and work will 
still have their places in stimulating movements and ideas, but the 
stimulations and demands upon the pupil must now be stronger 
and more vigorous. Moreover, the instruction must vary as much 
as possible, that the pupil’s mental inertia may be overcome, and his 
self-confidence developed. 

Now, let no one think that continual stimulation and change, or 
ceaseless activity during the lesson, injure the weak intellect rather 
than benefit it. Let him not be afraid of over-stimulating erethistic 
pupils (for example). If the teacher retains his fatherly attitude 
toward the pupils and carefully watches over their mental qualities, 
requires short steps of them, he will soon be encouraged by their 
progress. And the progress is not merely intellectual in its nature, 
no, there will be both physical and mental progress. The instruction 
in the auxiliary school will therefore be harmoniously educative. 

We have already shown that instruction in the lower grades of the 
auxiliary school needs but few means of assistance; Froebel’s “ gifts ” 
and all kinds of playthings are in the main to be regarded as suffi- 
cient. In addition, biblical illustrations and Stéwesand’s picture of 
the family, as well as pictures from magazines, are to be recom- 
mended. The more capable the pupils become the more extensive 
will be the use of illustrative material, until finally, in the interme- 
diate and higher classes it must be used just as much as in a well- 
equipped regular school. 

To the statement made above, that the method of instruction in the 
intermediate and higher classes will differ but little from that of the 
folk school, we wish now to make several additions. It is the gen- 
eral opinion that it is an advantage to connect the new material of 
instruction with knowledge already possessed, but this connection of 


old ideas and new must become a matter-of-course rule in auxiliary 


school instruction. Whenever the case admits it, we must start out 
from the relations in the home, outside the school, and on the street; 
an effort must be made to make new material plain to the pupil by 
means of plastic instruction. Only then will it be grasped and mere 
verbal instruction kept aloof. Nevertheless, it will often be a long 
time before the material of instruction can be treated logically. The 
children are often easily wearied and refuse to respond, much to the 
surprise of the teacher, who thought he was on the right track. To 


| prevent such surprises it has been suggested that the material of 


instruction be mastered by a spiral method. This method of work- 
ing through a subject, which is so much used, can not be regarded as 
a “cure-all.” Only mechanically is a little new connected with the 


96 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


old by it, and always a return must be made to the starting point. If 
anyone is concerned with implanting mere word knowledge the spiral 
method will seem easy and always applicable. If, however, one 
wishes to educate by his instruction, to use the material of instruc- 
tion for cultural purposes, he can get along without this method. If 
only the teacher understands how to bring about immanent repetition, 
i. e., to present the old in a new form through the new material or to 
recall it to the pupil’s mind from new points of view, he will make 
progress, slowly, it is true, but surely. The children will not then 
be wearied by mere repetition of subject-matter, but will be kept 
always mentally active. The necessary condition for this is a teacher 
who is himself active and never gets weary or doubts. His task is 
therefore no easy one, as we have said before. 

Since abnormal children often lack clear ideas regarding time, 
motion, and space, the instruction in all the classes must especially 
be directed to the development of these ideas by means of systematic 
and suitable exercises. Demoor has very properly pointed this out. 
Therefore the date of the birthdays of the children of every class, for 
example, must be dwelt on; the time of happening of all kinds of 


school events is to be determined, and the time of day read from the ~ 


clock. In their movements great stress must be laid upon accuracy 


and proper rhythm. Music is of great assistance in this, and in the ~ 


Brussels auxiliary school the employment of music has led to the 
formation of so-called “ eurhythmical ” exercises, which we heartily 
recommend. In order to accustom the eye to relations of magnitude 
and estimating magnitudes in space, measuring sticks should be 


kept in the class rooms and the school yard and compared with | 
newly found magnitudes. The school walks are constantly bringing 


forward new space relations, and gradually help to arrange and make 
clear the pupils’ vague ideas on this subject. 

Finally, in characterizing the auxiliary school instruction, it may 
be well to refer to the thoroughly practical direction which it must 


take in all its branches, if at all possible. Here we are thinking © 


especially of arithmetic, whose aims have been already characterized 
as taking their rise in practical life. The teacher of arithmetic has 
to illustrate the business dealings into which the auxiliary school 
pupil will later enter. There must be in the school a kind of store, 
with merchandise, coins, and weights, so that he will become familiar 
with the operations of buying and selling. Further, now and again a 
newspaper is to be used in the higher class, so that the growing child 


may learn something abeut the labor market, about supply and — 
demand, in order that he may later choose his field of work inde- — 


pendently. Brief compositions and letters may also serve the same 





«Director Schwenk, of Idstein, makes use of such a store in his institution. 

















DISCIPLINE. 97 


purpose, and these will be written willingly and with considerable 
care. 


We must not fail to mention here that the school can render val- 


‘uable service to the candidates for confirmation by helping them to 





be less awkward and showing them how to conduct themselves on the 
street and in all their circles of intercourse. The auxiliary~school 
teacher must do his best to keep his weakly endowed pupils from 
stumbling on their later path of life and to help them to be as inde- 
pendent as possible. Experience teaches that this kind of effort on 
the part of the auxiliary school may bring about very satisfactory 
results. 





XII.—DISCIPLINE IN THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 


Again and again it has been said that the auxiliary school should 
retain its character as a school institution, but that, more than is the 
case with any other, its instruction should be educative. Fortunately, 
it has not to cover so much ground, and so it can make its subject- 
matter cultural in its influence more easily than the regular school 
can do, if only the right methods of teaching are used. 

Of what value to the auxiliary school pupil is memory work, which 
burdens rather than inspires? In his case, also, it is true that the 
ability to do things is better than knowledge. But this ability must 
be in the service of a rational will, if the youth just entering upon 
life is to be a useful member of human society. 


(a) THE SCHOOL’S CARE OF THE SOUL. 


In this place we are not treating of education in general, but of 
psychological dietetics, or care of the soul and discipline in the 
school, in particular. In reality, these are not different in the auxil- 
iary school from what they are in the normal or regular school. The 
peculiarities of the pupils alone demand a special form. People 
think in this way: The auxiliary school pupils have weak natures, 
physically and mentally; consequently they claim consideration and 
kindness as the only measures in the educational scale. Now, the aux- 
iliary school teacher will certainly have to show great consideration 
and kindness wherever it is a question of discipline in the auxiliary 
school. But even in the case of normal children, kindness, if used 
alone, will have anything but the desired results. How much more 
is this true of weakly endowed children. They are just the ones who 
need to strengthen their weak wills by contact with a firm, forceful 
one. If the teacher always complies with their wishes and submits 
to their wills, they will never learn to distinguish good and bad 

14657—07T——7 


98 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


desires and to suppress their selfish impulses. For this reason there 


must be rigid discipline in the auxiliary school. 
So also refusals and warnings must work upon the child soul. 


But this must never develop into a drill which kills all love. More-° — 


over, many words too often fail in their purpose, and as a rule impa-_ 


tience works only lasting harm. Calmness and perseverance alone 
lead to a good end, which is reached so much the more surely if a 
friendly understanding is first arrived at and friendly stimulation 
exerted. But in many cases a self-confidence which is almost dead 


has to be reawakened and supported until it can make its way inde-~ 


pendently. 

The reign of firm discipline in the auxiliary school for the most 
part does not first show itself in special regulations or warnings. 
. The spirit of order, of time distribution prevailing in it, the spirit 
of punctuality and accuracy in work, will act effectively, especially 
if the teacher sets a worthy, forcible example by his faithfulness in 
little things and his own submission to the whole. 

In addition to this example, which is always subject to change, 
the ever unchanging in art can be brought in as an ally and helper 
in the auxiliary school. In our sketch of the ideal schoolhouse we 
said that it was desirable to have the walls of the class rooms deco- 
rated with mottoes and pictures. We must now point out (as Pro- 
fessor Sante de Sanctis has proven so convincingly in his annual 
report of the asylum school at Rome) that works of art, as present- 
ing to the view good deeds and beautiful examples, may also fur- 
nish models for the auxiliary school pupil, who so constantly needs 
good models. Recently it has been very properly brought into 
prominence that the esthetic can serve the moral. Therefore, let 
the walls of the schoolrooms be decorated with suitable pictures, not 
alone that the school may be made a pleasant place for the child 
brought up in often miserable surroundings, but rather that by look- 
ing so often at beautiful representations his memory for moral things 
will develop, and art will thus have won a place as an educative influ- 
ence in the auxiliary school. 

But, besides this, the auxiliary school teacher will need to use other 
and apeetat direct means of discipline; certainly he can not dispense 
with these. As is well known, there are a great many of them. But 
he must not use the most extreme measures at once, even if this would 
shorten the process for him. In the great majority of cases a well- 
graded system of rewards will lead to more good than a scale of 
punishments which is consistent, but carried out in a heartless way. 


Encouragement and praise always help to arouse self-confidence, — 


while corporal punishment often brings about bad results. Conse- 
quently corporal punishment has been condemned in all cases, and 


that not alone by the doctors. But other voices have been raised in | 

















DISCIPLINE. - 99 


advocating a resort to this means of discipline in the education of 
abnormal children. Ziehen says: “ Bodily punishments are not to be 
entirely done away with, but they must never be inflicted on the 
head ;” and Schwenk declares: “ If, therefore, the teacher is firmly 
convinced that the pupil knows exactly. what has been forbidden, and 
in spite of repeated commands, reminders, admonitions, and warn- 
ings, persists in carrying out his own bad will, then there is no other 
way out of it, the proverb must be applied: ‘ Who will not hear must 
feel, and, as we know from experience, birch-rod writing (hélzerne 
Schrift) upon the boy’s back does him exceptionally good service.” 


(6) THE SCHOOLS’ CARE OF THE BODY. 


The physical condition of the auxiliary school pupil demands 
continually the most careful consideration. Any injury to the body 
often directly hinders the mental development.. Therefore the 
school physician has not only to establish the health condition of 
the pupil, but he must also watch him continually. In this the 
auxiliary school teachers can be of great service to him. They 
observe the children every day in the classes, on the playground, 
and in the garden, and if they are good observers and know some- 
thing of hygiene, they acquire the faculty of noticing changes in 
the appearance and conduct of their pupils. In cases of sudden 
illnesses or slight accidents they can use for their relief medicines 
which the medicine chest contains by the directions of the physician. 
Their proper use may do a great deal of good and very materially 
lighten the work of the iaecian. But pe more could be done 
for the care of the pupils’ bodies if the parents would cooperate 
with the physician and the teachers. It has already been shown 
how the doctor may influence them when occasion offers. But how 
often must it be done with the cooperation of the teachers, if the 
physical condition of this or that pupil is really to be improved! 
If many parents were not so inaccessible to well-meant advice, | 
special “ parents’ evenings” might be arranged for in the auxiliary 
school. How many questions and problems demand a joint dis- 
cussion and solution, and in how many cases must the parents’ 
consciences be sharpened in order to make them introduce a better 
method of life into their homes! Unfortunately the difficulties are 
too great for us to aim at influencing in mass. Therefore there is 
no way out of it but summoning the individual parents to the 
school and there giving them words of advice. They may also 
be greatly helped in deeds by the public care for their weak children, 
giving some free transportation on the street railways, others a 
warm breakfast in winter. 

The evident necessity of giving tonics to auxiliary school pupils, 
and the want of understanding on the part of their parents, which 


100 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


is just as apparent, have brought up the following question: Is the 


auxiliary school to remain simply a day school, with a limited time 
of influence, or is it to develop into a boarding school? Worthy 
representatives of the “curative educational institutions” (Heiler- 
ziehungsanstalten) consider the boarding school as the best arrange- 
ment. In this connection Heller says: “ We desire most heartily 
that very many auxiliary schools may, in the course of time, even if 
only gradually, become regular boarding schools.” Piper says, to 
be sure: “To be able to properly answer the question, ‘Auxiliary 
school or special institution?’ one must spend years in careful 
observation of individual cases in even their smallest details. * * * 
The author indeed recognizes the value of day auxiliary schools, 
but he also knows that the principals of auxiliary schools are striving 
to make them boarding schools, and even now try to obtain the good 
results of the latter by insisting on the schools’ feeding the mentally 
deficient children intrusted to them and on keeping them at the 





school as long as possible. Serious enough does the question seem 


to them, ‘What becomes of our pupils daily when they leave our 
care?’” Certainly everyone could agree in general with these state- 
ments. The longer the auxiliary school pupil is under the influence 
of the school, the more effective its influence will be. Our auxiliary 
school pupils can very seldom be well cared for in their homes. They 
see there little that is good, and, on the other hand, often receive last- 
ing impressions of unwholesome conditions. So the pupils’ with- 
drawal from parental influence may often be very desirable. 

But even at Leipzig, where the pupils are not only fed, but formed 
into voluntary classes for busy work, this step has not yet been taken, 
and the school preserves its day character. At Halle also, and prob- 
ably in other places with fully developed auxiliary schools, this step 
will not be taken. In spite of certain undeniable imperfections, the 
day school gives a better opportunity to fit the pupil for life in the 
hard world than the closed institution. In the school the child must 
be inured to resist the evil influences of his companions of the street, 
and even of his family. He must not be kept in leading strings too 
long. The pupils are not idiots, whose personality can never be 
firmly established. 

Besides all this, institutional education offers many difficulties. 
Not only is it very expensive, but it demands also greater services 
from the educators. Even a day school for mentally deficient children 
makes serious demands upon the teacher, and the results of his efforts 
are not always certain. Still less certain, perhaps, will they be in 
an institution, which sometimes is, as Gérke asserts, a downright 
breeding place for certain vices, such as masturbation, talebearing, 
etc., if, we may add, the supervision is inadequate. At all events, 


St SE a a 








PREPARATION OF PUPILS FOR CONFIRMATION. 101 


then, we must preserve the character of the day school, keep the 
children at school as long as possible during the day, and send them 
home for the night. 





XITI.—PREPARATION OF AUXILIARY SCHOOL PUPILS 
~ FOR CONFIRMATION. 


For a long time people have had the idea that mentally deficient 
children are especially gifted religiously; this gift has even been 
pointed to as compensation for the lack of purely intellectual ability. 
Such an opinion has repeatedly been supported by the fact that not 
merely hysterical children tend to show religious enthusiasm, but 
mentally weak children seem to be able to memorize a surprising 
amount of religious material. Consequently, in religious instruction 
such children have been overfed with biblical history and dogmas. 
Since this instruction has been given by auxiliary school teachers, 
however, this overfeeding has been done away with by them. It is 
probably now generally recognized as true, what was said by Inspector 
Landenberger in the school and annual reports of the Hygienic Insti- 
tution for the Care of Mental Defectives and Epileptics, and con- 
- firmed by the psychiatrists A. Rémer and W. Weygandt, viz, that 
one-sided overloading of the memory with religious material, as with 
any other, is harmful rather than helpful. 

If the teacher knows how to bring the pupil under the guidance 
and chastening of God by his religious instruction, and to present the 
divine guidance and chastening as much as possible from his own 
experience and his own yielding to discipline, he does not need all 
the helps which the mentally normal child requires, such as the his- 
tory of the stages in the development of the kingdom of God, and the 
established dogmas in epic or lyric form. And even in preparing 
pupils for confirmation, he does not need to amplify all these. The 
auxiliary school pupil will neither be an active vestryman, nor will 
he take part in discussions regarding religions and creeds. But he 
will manifest his Christianity just as everyone who can be only of 
the “silent in the land.” For this the instruction for confirmation 
must prepare him. ) 

It must first be determined what ideas the children bring with them 
from the public school. As a rule their religious knowledge will be 
small; besides this, the auxiliary school pupils bring with them, from 
the various classes, varied powers of receptivity and varied degrees 
of activity. Therefore the teacher must become very well acquainted 
with the mental qualities of the candidates for confirmation if he 
would properly estimate and benefit each one. Such an analytic and 
personal method can not be used, however, when the pastor takes all 


102 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


the children in hand for preparatory instruction, and the auxiliary | 


school pupil is placed among candidates for confirmation who come 
from the regular school. The pastor may scatter as many seeds of 
divine truth as he will, yet the auxiliary school pupil will go away 
empty. And if, when among his cleverer fellows, he is asked even an 
easy question, he will fail in these new surroundings and be made 
sport of. The result will be that not merely a dissatisfied, but a con- 
fused and puzzled soul will come up for confirmation. * Such results 
must and can be avoided. Above all things, the weakly endowed 
pupils are to be kept away from the confirmation instruction in which 
the normal children share. 

If this is admitted, we must next decide who should instruct this 
group of candidates from the auxiliary school—the pastor or the 
teacher. In many cities, as, for example, in Halle, a clergyman takes 
charge of this difficult task. Two days in the week the school prin- 
cipal has a class room made ready for this purpose, so that the prepa- 
ration for confirmation partakes, from the start, of the character of 
school instruction. The pastor is in every case the youngest one in 
the church parish in which the schoolhouse and its auxiliary classes 
are situated. As assistant pastor, he naturally will not stay very long 
in this parish, so that frequent changes are made. This young 
clergyman is not previously questioned by his superiors as to whether 
he has sufficient inclination and ability to carry on this difficult work. 
He does it as well as he can; his conscience is the only judge of his 
performance. Would it not mean a desirable relieving of this con- 
science if the church authorities in charge should declare: “ He alone 
is fitted to prepare the candidates from the auxiliary school for con- 
firmation who has known the pupils the most intimately and for 
the longest time?” Since the older clergymen of the parish already 
are burdened with several confirmation classes, they can not be 
called upon to give this instruction, which would require special 
study on their part. In the interest of the clergymen and of the 
children of the auxiliary school, as,well as in the interest of the 
kingdom of God upon earth, the instruction for confirmation must be 
given into the hands of the oldest teacher, or of the principal, of the 
auxiliary school. More or less recently this step has already been 
taken in Brunswick, Breslau, Kassel, Dresden, Gorlitz, and Konigs- 
berg. Generally this special duty is given over to the teacher or 
principal by the consistory, with the privilege of recalling the ap- 
pointment at any time. Beyond this, the higher church authorities 
reserve the right of supervision. They cause the city superintendent 
to visit the school once or twice a year, have him hold an examination 
a short time before the confirmation, and allow the candidates for 
confirmation from the auxiliary school to be handed over to their 
parochial clergymen for, perhaps, three or four weeks more, that 


fie Ni a be 4 











| 
. 
| 


Te are ate 


\ aiah i oh ' RSITY 
THE STATE AND THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 103 


they may take their confirmation vows along with the other children 
on the general day of confirmation. For this purpose, at the very 
beginning of his preparation for confirmation, the personal record of 
each should be given to the clergyman in charge, so that he may in 
good season influence, as spiritual guide, also those children who 
have not yet come under his instruction, and their parents. 

The confirmation ceremony and the first communion of the auxil- 
iary school pupils at Halle, in the presence of the teachers of the 
institution, was always quite solemn and impressive, but the ceremony 
made the impression upon one, however, that the pupils of this insti- 
tution for the care and education of defectives were being confirmed 
under special and abnormal conditions. The auxiliary school pupils, 
at the age of confirmation at least, should feel that they can live 
among companions of their own age without noticeable peculiarities. 

As material of instruction the Ten Commandments are, above all, to 
be used, and these are to be treated with especial regard to prac- 
tical life. Kielhorn makes excellent suggestions regarding methods 
of presenting them to candidates from the auxiliary school. Then, 
in addition to the Commandments, there are the three articles of the 
creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the command for baptism, and the sacra- 
mental words of the holy communion. Of course Luther’s explana- 
tion of these parts of the catechism is to be used. The purpose of 
confirmation should be made very clear to the pupils. 





XIV._THE COMMUNITY AND THE STATE IN THEIR 
RELATIONS TO THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 


The modern State, and under it the community, have not merely 
the right and the duty to care for the spreading and deepening of 
culture; both have also to take charge of the economically inefficient. 
As a rule, the mentally weak are the economically inefficient; there- 
fore the auxiliary school is no matter of luxury or a play of surplus 
financial powers. It is rather a humanitarian duty, which demands 
true manhood. Nevertheless, in the social life of different com- 
munities ideal impulses and philanthropic sentiments could not long 
avail if the real background of self-preservation did not speak a 
plain language. 

Naumann very properly says: “ To keep up the lowest class of the 
people means insurance against great losses to the whole.” The 
auxiliary school pupils come from the lowest class of a city com- 
munity. Since their ability to gain a livelihood is but small if they 
have not been specially trained and accustomed to work, the whole 
community has later to take action in their behalf. Either the aux- 


104 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


iliary school pupil becomes a loafer and a tax upon the poor funds or 
a vagabond upon the public highways. Both are unwelcome mem- 
bers of a community. Not only are they unwelcome, they are highly 
injurious to the social body. Mental deficiency, even in its lesser 
forms and aspects, is, as is well known, often the cause of all kinds 
of misdemeanors and crimes. Weak-mindedness, however, when 
joined with a dislike of work, is still more detrimental. So by neg- 
lecting the mentally and ouch inefficient a city incurs ex- 
penses for the care of the poor, expenses for the suppression of va- 
grancy, and, finally, expenses for the maintenance of criminals. This 
means, chenafore: that the maintenance of auxiliary schools is an 
insurance against greater losses. A comparison of expenses for the 
year will probably show that money has been saved, for if the efforts 
to make these weak ones capable of earning a livelihood and thus 
to add useful members to a community are successful, its powers are 
increased, even if they are but small factors in the community life. 
The establishment and maintenance of auxiliary schools is therefore 
not merely a worthy humanitarian duty, but also a social necessity ; 
and economic considerations generally speak convincingly in the 
larger administrative bodies. Now, the larger cities have, indeed, 
shown hitherto a gratifying rivalry in the matter of auxiliary schools, 
and the State has not only given its customary consent, but has not 
refused to recognize the newly created institutions. 

But the task of the State and the community by no means ends with 
the present auxiliary school organization. A whole series of long- 
ings, which now and again have been clearly enough expressed, must 
still be realized. In the first place, compulsory attendance on the 
auxiliary school, which has elsewhere (p. 47) been demanded, should 
be enforced by the State. Under the conditions ‘specified, parents 
should be obliged by law to send their children to an auxiliary school. 
Next, the school period should be extended to the end of the four- 
teenth year. It has been suggested that it would be well to keep all 
auxiliary school pupils in the school at least one year after the age of 
confirmation. 

More far-reaching and beneficial, however, is the demand that a 
special continuation school, with compulsory attendance and a course 
covering several years, should be established for poorly endowed 
children. Really it is not advisable to transfer confirmed pupils from 
the auxiliary school to the continuation trade schools of the cities; 
that would mean that all those evil conditions would again be brought 
about which the auxiliary school kas tried so hard to do away with. 
The difference in the school knowledge of the former auxiliary school 
pupils would of itself be especially troublesome to the teacher of the 
continuation school. Consequently a special class would have to be 





THE STATE AND THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 105 


instituted in that school. That religion, reading, writing, and arith- 
metic would have to be continued in it is probably not questioned by 
anyone, but at the same time economic, civic, and religious virtues 
must be cultivated. 

Besides these indispensable theoretical duties, the continuation 
school for poorly endowed children has also purely practical ones to 
perform. For this purpose, therefore, so-called “ preparatory work- 
shops ” must be established, which teach objectively the most ele- 
mentary forms of those trades which are to be most highly recom- 
mended to pupils from the auxiliary school. Mental defectives will 
seldom be able to create masterpieces. It is enough if they only 
become intelligent underworkers and helpers in straw plaiting, bas- 
ket making, bookbinding, cabinetmaking, or to stone masons, shoe- 
makers, gardeners, farm hands, bricklayers, etc. Even if many of 
these trades can not be taught in workshops, visits to places where 
work is being done, followed by discussions, will partially make up 
for this. If emphasis is laid upon this practical training, the con- 
tinuation school for mental defectives can give a vocation to hundreds 
of unfortunates who would otherwise fail in life, and this vocation 
will make them efficient and therefore useful and respectable members 
of human society. 

For the auxiliary school pupil, moreover, the choice of a vocation 
would be postponed for years by the continuation school, and so he 
would be enabled to make a wiser decision. It is always hard to 
discover in good season the best line of work for young people. The 
children of the auxiliary school consent to all kinds of proposals, and 
the parents seldom show understanding or deep interest in this mat- 
ter. So the decision often rests with the teacher and the physician. 
They can surmise, if they can not know exactly, what the child’s 
mental and physical equipment will be, as well as his later desires 
and abilities. By their counsel they can prevent the changes in voca- 
tion which the weak-minded pupil is so prone to make. 

The most important thing of all, however, they can not do alone, 
i. e., seek out suitable positions. How often parents who have been 
turned away by employers come to the auxiliary school principal and 
beg him to try to help their child to secure a position. Sometimes, 
indeed, the school’s intercession is of service, but master mechanics 
do not care to have much to do with apprentices from the auxiliary 
school. Therefore K. Richter’s wish is justifiable: “ Would that our 
master mechanics at home would realize that the children who go out 
from the auxiliary schools are not as incompetent as is generally 
thought, but that, on the contrary, they often excel in practical 
affairs boys taken into apprenticeship from the country or elsewhere 
without anything being known about them, and doubly reward the 


106 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


benevolent work of instructing them, if only the master does not 


leave this teaching in the hands of an assistant, but looks after it 
himself and is kind and patient with the boys.” 

A similar wish might be expressed in regard to the placing of 
girls in stores and factories, as in families which need servants or 
waiting maids. But will both wishes be considered carefully enough, 
and will masters and employers of servants use the personal records 
and individual lists of the auxiliary school? The realization of 
these wishes presupposes much benevolence of spirit. The State, 
however, could aid in this, as could private benevolence, to some 
extent at least: Let the State set aside rewards for such master 
mechanics as can prove that former auxiliary school pupils have 
answered all the demands of a guild in their training. According 
to K. Richter’s reports, on special motion of the Royal Saxon minis- 
ter of the interior, a premium of 150 marks is granted in such a ease. 
Perhaps this example will be imitated in other States. A wider 
influence can be exerted, however, by the activities of associations in 
cities having auxiliary schools. In Leipzig, K6nigsberg, and Berlin 
auxiliary school societies,and associations for the care of backward 
children already exist. The characteristic portions of the statutes of 
the associations of these cities are as follows: 


ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION AND CARE OF BACKWARD 
(MENTALLY DEFICIENT) CHILDREN. |. (BERLIN.) 


[Chartered association. ] 
eX 74 NAME, LOCATION, AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


$1. The Association for the Education and Care of Backward (Mentally 
Deficient) Children, founded March 26, 1903, has its headquarters in Berlin. 

§ 2. The Association for the Education and Care of Backward (Mentally 
Deficient) Children aims to awaken and promote interest in and understanding 
of the culture and education of backward (mentally deficient) children and to 
cooperate in the mental, physical, moral, and economic advancement of these 
minors. 

§ 3. This aim is attained: 

A. 


*. By lectures and discussions of topics in the fields of instruction and educa- 
tion in question, especially of the present practice in the care of mental de- 
fectives at home and abroad, by the description of typical institutions and typ- 
ical organizations before the association, before other associations, or public 
assemblies. 

2. By the discussion of pertinent literature, of ordinances and decrees of 
State and district authorities. 

3. By scientific treatment of pertinent, questions, the publication of suitable 
aids to teaching, ete., discussions in ss se i magazines and in the daily 
press. 

4. By visiting establishments (classes, caneeles institutions) for the care of 
mental defectives, meetings of societies, and conventions. 

5. By establishing a central bureau of information. 














THE STATE AND THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 107 
B. 


By the development of practical care taking. This care taking shall strive 
to bring about— 


1. For all mental defectives who need it— 


(a) Provision for better care, clothing, and food. 

(b) The establishment of homes for children, refuges (day homes with 
board), and suitable care during vacations. 

-(e) The placing of the children under proper care, either private or in 
some institution, according to the nature of the case. 

(d) Their seasonable committal to suitable educational institutions. 

(e) The appointment of care takers and professional assistants, who are 
continually to watch over the education of the children, have super- 
vision of the proper use of materials at the disposal of the execu- 
tive council, instruct and advise parents, guardians, care takers, 
overseers, and employers of labor. 

(f) The formation of school committees in connection with the schools 
concerned. 


2. For those who have got through school— 


(a) In cooperation with parents, guardians, and teachers, to advise the 

children as soon as possible before their dismissal from the school 
_regarding their choice of a vocation. . 

(b) To point out reliable foremen and employers of labor who would be 
likely to exert a beneficial and educative influence upon these 
youths and further their technical training. 

(ce) To take care of these children when they aré not cared for in homes. 

(d) In connection with. the school, to establish continuation courses, even- 
ing technical classes, and homes for apprentices and girls in order to 
help those who have left school to make proper use of their spare 
time. 

(e) To help specially needy children to gain a more adequate education by 
means of stipends, assistance from existing benevolent foundations, 
associations, and funds. 

(f) To grant aid in special cases of need and when dangers threaten them 
in public life on account of their deficient ability. 


Il. MEMBERSHIP. 


§ 4, Adults of both sexes, without distinction of vocation, political party, or 
religion, as well as organizations, officials, and corporations, may be members 
of this association. : 

§ 5. Membership may be gained by declaring one’s intention to enter as— 

(a) helper. 

(b) professional assistant. 
(c) paying member. 

(d) life member. 

(e) patron. 

§ 6. Members of the association have equal rights regarding the management 
of the association. In the general assembly each member of the association has 
a vote, in the council each of its own members has a vote, and in neither case 
is vote by proxy permitted. 


108 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


§ 7. The helpers, who work in connection with the schools, bind themselves to 
do their utmost to accomplish the purposes set forth in § 2 and § 3, according to 
a special regulation. 

§ 8. When requested by the council or its individual members, each professional 
assistant must give information regarding his own vocation or his chosen field 
of work, and also must give advice of his own accord regarding affairs in his 
department which can have significance in the education of mentally deficient 
children, as in connection with apprenticeship, labor, wages. 

§ 9. The professional assistants and helpers do not need to pay any membership 
fee. Hach year the paying members pay into the treasury of the association 
any amount they choose, at least, however, three marks. 

§ 10. Life members make one payment of at least a hundred marks; patrons 
at least five hundred marks. Persons who serve the association in any special 
way may be elected honorary members of the main body. 

§ 11. Membership is lost— 
(a) by expressed desire to withdraw. 
(b) for paying members, by two failures to pay the annual fee. 
(c) by decision of the general assembly upon recommendation of the 
council. 


III. ORGANIZATION OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


§ 12. The work of the association is carried on by an executive council and 
the general assembly. Both bodies can appoint committees and commissions for 
special service, and to these others beside the members of the executive council 
may be appointed. 

A pedagogical commission, whose president must always be a teacher, enters 
upon its work at once, and its duties are regulated by special by-laws. This 
commission has the right to expend, for its own purposes, moneys which have 
been appropriated for its special work without having to gain the permission 
of the executive council. 

The treasurer of the association is required to keep special account of the 
same. 


A. THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 


§ 13. The executive council is elected by the general assembly for a period of 
three years beginning January 1; one-third go out each year. Re-election is 
permissible. The first elections are for the period from 1903 to December 31, 
1905. -Lots shall be cast to determine whose terms shall expire in 1903 and 
1904. 

§ 14. The executive council consists of— 

(a) a president and two vice-presidents. 

(6) a secretary and two assistant secretaries. 
(c) a treasurer and his assistant. 

(ad) six other members. 


§ 15. A special schedule of work specifies the duties of each member of the ~ 


executive council. 

§ 16. The executive council carries on the current business of the association. 
It meets when occasion demands, if possible, at least once a month. 

§ 17. The executive council represents the association in all its relations, and 
especially in court. The president and a second member of the executive coun- 
cil may sign papers in the name of the association. 

§ 18, The secretary must do all the written work for the association. 











THE STATE AND THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 109 


§ 19. The treasurer must collect the revenues of the association, take charge 
of the treasury and the funds of the association, make payment when directed to 
do so by the president, and keep all accounts. 

§ 20. In case any officer is unable to perform his duties his assistant is pro- 
moted to the position. 

§ 21. All moneys which in the opinion of the executive council are not needed 
to carry on its regular work are to be invested as securely as are the funds of 
minor children. The council has the power to decide regarding the withdrawal 
of such funds from investment. 


B. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 


§ 22. The general assembly meets at least once a year. With it alone lies the 
power to examine into the affairs of the executive council, as well as into the 
report of its work (especially of the treasurer), to elect new members of the 
executive council, and finally to.decide regarding the expulsion of a member 
and regarding changes in the statutes of the association. The report of the 
treasurer is accepted only after his accounts have been audited by two mem- 
bers of the association appointed each year by the general assembly. These 
must not be members of the executive council. 


IV. SPECIAL RULES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


§ 25. In addition to the regulations laid down in the schedule of work, the 
following special rules guide in the management of the association: 

The president sets the date for the regular meetings of the executive council 
as long beforehand as practicable. To other meetings the members of the execu- 
tive council are given written invitations; the call for meetings of the general © 
assembly shall be published at least fourteen days before the date of meeting 
in the following newspapers: Die Vossische Zeitung, Die Post, Das Berliner 
Tageblatt, and Der Lokalanzeiger. The executive council may publish other 
notices of any meeting of the general’assembly if it is deemed advisable. . 

§ 24. The president must call a special meeting of the executive council when 
three members make a written motion to that effect, stating the object; an 
extra session of the general assembly when one-fourth of the members of the 
association propose it in like manner. 

§ 25. For the regular meetings of the executive council one-third of the mem- 
bers constitute a quorum; in the general assembly no quorum is necessary. 

§ 26. A majority vote carries a measure; in case of a tie the president casts 
the deciding vote. For the expulsion of a member or a change in the statutes 
a two-thirds majority of the voting members is required. 

§ 27. If a member of the executive council can not or will not accept an office 
to which he has been chosen or continue therein, the members have the right to 
appoint one of their number in his place for the rest of his term of office. In 
like manner the executive council may complete its membership from the mem- 
bership of the association. 

§ 28. The minutes of the executive council are authenticated by the signa- 
tures of the president and secretary, those of the general assembly by the signa- 
tures of the president, secretary, and three members of the executive council. 

§ 29. Only a vote of three-fourths of the members present in the general assem- 
bly can dissolve the association after it has been decided in a previous meeting 
by a two-thirds majority that the question of the dissolution of the association 
will be brought up at its next meeting. 

If the dissolution of the association is decided upon, its possessions are turned 
over, conserving the rights of third parties, to the municipal authorities of Ber- 
lin, requiring them to use them in the spirit of the constitution of this associa- 
tion. 


110 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


ORDER OF BUSINESS OF THE COMMISSION FOR THE INSTRUCTION 
AND EDUCATION OF BACKWARD (MENTALLY DEFICIENT) CHIL- 
DREN. (LEIPZIG.) 


1. PURPOSE. 


The Commission for the Instruction and Education of Mentally Deficient 
Children aims to gain a pedagogical insight into the real nature of these chil- 
dren, to discover the best methods which lead to the instruction and education 
of them, as well as the school organization which would best meet their needs. 


2. ORGANIZATION. 


The commission will strive to gain this purpose by holding meetings, by ar- 
ranging for courses of lectures, by founding a library with pertinent literature, 
by maintaining a reading room with suitable magazines, me arranging journeys 
for information, by sending delegates, etc. 


Proceedings at meetings will consist of lectures, oe ren of collected experi- 


ences, discussions of, books, references to new data, specimen teaching, exhibi- 
tions of teaching appliances, etc. 


38. MANAGEMENT, 


The executive officers of the commission consist of the president and a vice- 
president, secretary, assistant secretary, and librarian. 

Only teachers may be chosen as presidents and secretaries. 

Members of the executive body are elected for one year; reelection is permis- 
sible. 


AUXILIARY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION AT KONIGSBERG, 


{ According to Fr. Frenzel. ] 


§ 1. The purpose of the association is to cooperate with the auxiliary school 
in caring for the physical and mental development of weak-minded children, 
viz: 

1. Of those who have left school. 

2. Of those still compelled to go to school. 

' 3. Of other mental defectives, i. e., those who are still very young. 

To this is joined the further purpose of spreading information regarding the 
real significance and value of the auxiliary school and of combating the prej- 
udices of the public against it. 

§ 2. The care of boys and girls who have left the Konigsberg Auxiliary School 
will, among other things, consist in: 

(a) The training of children for a practical calling in life. For this work 
competent and morally unobjectionable masters, overseers, and guard- 
ians must be secured. 

(b) The continuous supervision and education of the children. 

(c) The granting of assistance in cases of need, as well as protection against 
the dangers arising from their meager endowment, and against 
those of public life (injuries caused by negligence, acute mental 
disturbances, alcohol, prostitution, conflicts with the authorities). 

(d) The placing of children under proper care, either private or in some 
institution, according to the nature of the case. 


ves an 


oA a 











ae oa vie ae EST 


THE STATE AND THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 111 


§ 3. The care of children who are still of school age shall, among other things, 
consist in— 

(a) Placing them as soon as possible in the auxiliary school ; 

(b) Providing better care for the pupils as an aid to the accomplishment 
of the school purposes, especially by the establishment of a home 
for children (day home with board) and by providing special care 
during vacations. . 

§ 4. To carry on this work helpers are appointed by the association, who are 
to watch over the pupils and instruct the persons in their environment (pareuts, 
guardians, former teachers, etc.). 

§ 5. Any man or woman who is interested in this sphere of benevolent activity 
may become a member of the association. Societies are also accepted as mem- 
bers. Applications for admission are to be made to the president. Every 
member pays an optional fee (at least 2 marks) during the year. 

Notice of withdrawal from the association must be presented in writing before 
the close of the year to the executive council. 

Every member is asked to further the interests of the association as far as 
he can by spreading information regarding its purposes, and by accepting 
responsible positions and posts of honor in it. 

§ 6. The executive council consists of sixteen members, men and women, in- 
cluding the president, vice-president, secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, 
and eleyen other members. The executive council conducts all the affairs of 
the association and holds monthly meetings to discuss the progress of its work. 

The members of the executive council are chosen at the first general meeting 
of the year. If a member withdraws before the expiration of his term of office, 
some one else is elected to take his place. 

§ 7. The association year begins January the first. Meetings are called by 
the executive council when occasion demands. The principal meeting of the 
year is held in January, when the secretary’s and the treasurer’s reports are 
given and the executive council elected. This annual meeting, the objects of 
which are stated in the call, requires no quorum. A majority vote will pass 
any resolution; to change or amend the constitution a two-thirds majority of 
the members present is required. A two-thirds majority vote of all the members 
of the association is necessary to disband the association. In case of the dis- 
solution of the association, all its possessions are to be handed over to some 
institution for the care of mental defectives. 


At Cologne, too, as well as at Frankfort on the Main and Brussels, 
the auxiliary school, assisted by associations, cares for the further 
development of its pupils who have been confirmed and have left 
the school. It is very important, also, that the auxiliary school 
teachers should carry on research work regarding the success of 
auxiliary school instruction, as is done at Leipzig. At the instigation 
of K. Richter (Leipzig) every six years questionnaires are sent out. 
These seek information regarding the ability to earn a livelihood, 
the conduct, and the desire for further education of former pupils 
who can still be found. Such work causes the teacher much trouble, 
and yet it furnishes a splendid test of the success of the school as 
a whole. The results of the Leipzig experiments are gratifying, and 
encourage us to continue the work along this line. We may expect 
that such research work will be successful in other cities, too. Of 
course the results of all efforts in the auxiliary school will be more 


112 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


certain and greater when State and community, cooperating with 
private persons, labor in the interest of those mental defectives who 
have left the school. 

Boys must be cared for till they reach the age when they must 
serve in the army: That such care is very necessary has been proved 
by H. Kielhorn, and he has also done much to bring it about. Much 
of the mistreatment of soldiers, which is always mentioned in the 
press and parliamentary speeches, comes about because the mental 
condition of the youths who enter the army is not considered. If 
when recruits were being examined the doctor would only take the 
time to glance over the “ personal records” of the auxiliary school, 
many an evil report concerning the army could be stopped. And 
much “ ballast,” too, many a drag on the military training, would 


be done away with; indeed, the number of deserters and suicides — 


would be greatly lessened, if the previous life of the recruits were 
known, on the basis of statements made by auxiliary school teachers. 
And if only during recruiting, at least the question, “ What school 
have you attended?” were asked, then, if an auxiliary school were 
mentioned, a special examination would have to be made. To pre- 
vent the misuse of this simple method, the military authorities might 
demand lists of pupils of the auxiliary schools of any particular re- 
cruiting district. In all cases it would be wiser not to allow any 
former pupil of an auxiliary school to serve in the army, no matter 
how physically capable he may seem; and this from humanitarian as 
well as from technically military and patriotic considerations. 

A special administration of justice is recommended for weak- 
minded, abnormal boys and girls who have left school. To be sure, 
while attending the auxiliary school, they should learn to distinguish 
more clearly right and wrong, good and evil; but a pupil will never 
leave the auxiliary school with firm principles of right in his mind; 
his social conscience will always be wavering. At least he will never 
be able to resist the manifold temptations of his surroundings as a 
mentally normal person could do. At times, too, physical conditions 
will obscure his weak sense of right, so that deeds will be committed 
which human society calls misdeeds, and punishes. The so-called 
“changed accountability” (veriinderte Zurechnungsfaihigkeit) must 
here be considered. When the layman, who criticises harshly and 
hastily, hears this newly-coined legal term, he speaks lightly of a 
ridiculous lowering of our standards of discipline. Indeed, in view 
of the increasing number of mental defectives among those to be 
punished, he sees the administration of justice in a precarious posi- 
tion, if punishment in a great number of cases is lessened as a result 
of individual consideration of the mental condition of the offenders. 
But criminal psychology is neither a philanthropic or scientific sport; 
the knowledge of psychopathology in its connection with misde- 


» pen tindiilebd dabei : ~ 





a nese 


THE STATE AND THE AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 1138 


meanors and crimes is nowadays rather a necessity, which can pre- 
vent the infliction of punishment from being dislodged from its posi- 
tion. Whoever has watched the dévelopment of an auxiliary school 
pupil will know how easily guided he is, as long as those around him 
understand him, and further, as long“as this or that nervous condi- 
tion does not handicap him. : 
Further, the health educator knows how sensitive he may become, 
and fall into passions of the worst kind, if his short and disconnected 
trains of thought become confused on account of some cause lying 
entirely outside the sphere of his will. In such a case the slightly 
abnormal child will generally act without reflection; but sometimes 
_ he may, after mature but one-sided deliberation, do wrong, and then 
his “changed accountability” can scarcely be assumed. In both 
cases the judge must decide from a humanitarian point of view, i. e., 
he must consider the inner man in the offender, particularly if the 
offender has passed through the auxiliary school in his youth. To 
regard him as completely responsible, and to punish him as one would 
a mentally normal person, would be to chastise a cripple merely be- 
cause he was born a cripple, and to deform him still further. Para- 
graph 51¢ of the penal code of the German Empire gives the 
judge the right to take into consideration a mental condition— 
“unconsciousness” or “morbid excitement,” by which free-will 
action is absolutely prevented. Not a word, however, is said of 
mental deficiency as a condition which also may hinder the free 
action of the will. The twenty-seventh conference of German jurists 
has recently tried to remedy this defect; and upon the advice of 
Professors Kahl and Leppman (Berlin), the following recommenda- 
tions have been made to the judicial authorities by Professors Cramer 
(Géttingen), Kripelin (Munich), and Kleinfeller (Kiel) : 
1. Anyone who, at the time of committing a criminal act, is in a 
diseased condition which is not merely temporary, and which has 
lessened his ability to see the culpability of his actions, or his power to 
resist temptation, is to be punished according to the law governing 
punishment for petty offenses. 

2. In the case of young offenders, more extensive use is to be made 
of the principle recommended by the twenty-seventh conference of 
jurists, viz, that educative measures, under the direction of the state, 
be substituted for punishment. 

3. Punishment may be postponed according to the general rule 
permitting it, and we recommend that this rule be applied as widely 

as possible. 

_ 4, Commitment is made to the usual penal institution, where the 
conditions which brought about mental deficiency are given special 
E consideration. 








a Compare Biirgerliches Gesetzbuch f..d. Deutsche Reich, par. 827. 
14659—07——_8 


114 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


5. Mental defectives in the sense of paragraph 1 who do not belong 
in the usual penal institution are to be committed to a state reform- 
atory, and youthful offenders are to be committed to educational 
institutions. 

6. Mental defectives who are dangerous to society must be kept in 
suitable institutions until such time as they are considered fit to be 
discharged, even though their sentences have been fulfilled or re- 
mitted. 

7. The discharge is only provisional and may be revoked during a 
time fixed by law. 

8. The health of mental defectives who are not dangerous to so- 
ciety must be watched over by the State after their discharge or the 
remission of their sentence; they may be placed in families or private 
institutions or given over to specially appointed guardians. Legal 
limits should be set to the period of such supervision. 

9. Special means are to be taken to determine the necessity and 
advisability of any protective measures to be used in connection with 
mental defectives, but this procedure is to be kept entirely distinct 
from that concerned with the deprivation of the right of independent 
action (on account of mental derangement or reckless expenditure). — 

In these recommendations a very important role is given to the 
physician in connection with penal sentences. It is desirable, how- 
ever, that the advice of the auxiliary school teacher be taken as an 
expert when judgment is to be passed upon those who have formerly 
attended an auxiliary school. At least the previous life and develop- 
ment of the accused, as shown by the individual records kept by the 
auxiliary school, must be taken into consideration. Many milder 
sentences would then be given and further culpable deeds prevented 
by proper treatment. Perhaps help may come from auxiliary school 
and other societies in cities whose members can secure legal counsel 
when former auxiliary school pupils are accused in court. This 
counsel will always meet with obliging assistance among auxiliary 
school people.* 





-XV.—_THE TEACHERS AND THE PRINCIPAL OF THE 
AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 


The rapid development of the auxiliary school system explains the 
fact that teachers and head masters have received no special training 
for their work. Up to the present this could not be thought of. The 
appointment officials were always satisfied if they could secure folk- 





«The “ Hilfsschule,” No. 3, publishes an account of the committee for the 
legal protection of mental defectives. This committee was appointed at the 
instance of the executive council of the German Auxiliary School Association. 











TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS. 115 


school teachers who were willing to apply for the position. It was 


_ taken for granted that a teacher accepted the position on account of 


his interest in the cause, for the small remuneration given to auxili- 
ary school teachers could scarcely be an inducement. It was thought 
thatfinterest in the cause, first of all, was the only and best prepa- 
ration for the work, but still they were anxious to secure the most 
competent and experienced teachers, especially successful teachers of 
the lower classes of the folk school. The teacher of these lower 
classes, therefore, who would give his undivided attention to his new 
work, seemed to be by far the most suitable person for the position. 
Many times experience showed that this was the case. Yet many of 
the beginners were disappointed; they were neither satisfied with 
their work nor successful in it. For the auxiliary school, as well as 
for the teachers in question, it was then fortunate if withdrawal was 
still possible. In their places new teachers would then have to be 
chosen and with greater care than before. yNext, the auxiliary school 
authorities were glad if they could secure teachers from among those 
who had taught in curative educational institutions, as asylums for 
idiots, institutes for the deaf and dumb, and the blind. 
Unfortunately, as a rule but few applications were received from 
that quarter. Consequently dependence had to be placed almost en- 
tirely upon fornier Holk-school teachers, and in fact only upon the 
younger ones of these. For if a folk-school teacher has for years been 
teaching his pupils as a mass, he has gradually become unfitted for 
the individual instruction required in the auxiliary school. It is too 


hard for him to accustom himself to new methods, and he finds no 


pleasure in the work.. In many cases he is thoroughly convinced of 
the power of discipline and drill in the school. Now, both of these 
may be very necessary in a large folk-school class, but in the auxiliary 
school they are injurious rather than beneficial. The auxiliary 
school teacher must not be an unsympathetic disciplinarian. He must 
have his own feelings fully under his control. If he is irritable and 
if anger easily gains power over him, he had better turn his back 
upon the auxiliary school. In dealing with mental defectives, as well 
as with poorly endowed children, the teacher must always practice 
self-control. Any expression of impatience, as hasty and harsh words, 


~ would be quite useless and his work as an educator quite without 


effect. Whims and moods must also be suppressed by one undertak- 
ing this work. Therefore, a person who is physically sound should 
be chosen. A nervous, melancholy person would never be equal to 
the demands made by auxiliary school instruction, and the children 
would be deprived of all the freshness and brightness which school 
work should possess. 

To be sure, experienced folk-school teachers can become models of 
self-control and able to spread sunshine and gladness about them; 


116 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


probably, however, they will prefer to remain in their usual field of 

work rather than accustom themselves to a new one when well up in 
years. This adaptation to new situations is sooner to be expected of 
the newer members of the profession. Even when we were convinced 
that one of these members, who stood ready to serve the auxiliary 
school, was really interested in its welfare, and we knew his power 
of self-control, as also the cheerfulness of his disposition, and speedy 
adjustment to the new duties could be expected, even then we were 
not certain that the right choice had been made. Little by little 
people came to see that experimentation by a teacher is nowhere more 
injurious than among children who are abnormal and constantly in 
danger of injury by being led in this or that direction. Consequently 
all kinds of proposals were made, especially by auxiliary school 
teachers themselves, by which the folk-school teacher might -be made 
competent to take up the work of the auxiliary school in such a way 
that he would without loss of time become a blessing to the school 
and a satisfaction to himself. 

First, it was recommended that the new teacher be allowed to visit 
the classes of experienced auxiliary school teachers frequently. To 
begin with, the higher classes, then the intermediate, and finally the 
lower classes should be visited before he attempts to teach at all. 
This proposal deserves serious consideration. The visitor should be | 
permitted to ask questions, to which instructive answers are to be. — 
given, by the teacher in charge of the class. It is not less important | 
that he should attend conferences of the auxiliary school instructors. 

‘Secondly, candidates for positions in the auxiliary school are to be 
advised to acquaint themselves with the literature of the subject and 
to make themselves at home in all fields of knowledge and technical 
work which bear upon auxiliary school instruction. Above all, the 
following books are to be studied: Demoor, Die anormalen Kinder und 
- ihre erziehliche Behandlung in Haus und Schule; Fuchs, Schwach- 
sinnige Kinder, ihre sittliche und intellektuelle Rettung; Striimpell, 
Die pidagogische Pathologie oder die Lehre von den Fehlern der 
Kinder; Heller, Grundriss der Heilpidagogik. He should also make 
himself acquainted with the reports of the meetings of the German 
Auxiliary School Association and of the conferences regarding auxil- 
iary schools and schools for idiots, as well as with the Zeitschrift fiir 
die Behandlung Schwachsinniger und Epileptischer, and further, with 
the “ Kinderfehler.” In consequence of this knowledge of the litera- 
ture, not only will he become desirous of familiarizing himself with 
the history and organization of the auxiliary school system, but also 
of occupying himself with social and scientific pedagogical questions 
and individual departments of the work. Further, the auxiliary | 
school teacher must know the sociological efforts being made in our | 
time; also school hygiene, how to cure difficulties of speech, child and 





TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS. 117 


folk psychology, as well as the broad field which the physician in- 
_ eludes under the term “ etiology of psychosis.” 

Thirdly, the auxiliary school teacher is recommended to increase 
his knowledge by attendance upen suitable series of lectures. These 
lectures have hitherto been given rarely. In 1899 was established 
at Zurich the first course for teachers in special schools. As is seen 
from the reports published in the “ Kinderfehler,” this laudable un- 
dertaking reckoned more upon the attendance of teachers from the 
medico-pedagogical establishments than from the auxiliary schools. 

_ ~ In 1904 an attempt was made at Jena to adapt these courses specially 
to the needs of auxiliary school teachers. The pedagogical depart- 
ment of the vacation schools which have been organized for many 

. years presented lectures regarding defects of character in childhood 
and youth, child psychology, the auxiliary school system, difficulties 
of speech in childhood, the physiology of the brain, and demonstra- 
tions by reference to meagerly endowed and defective children. 

These lectures will maintain their significance as a kind of intro- 
ductory preparation so long as a fourth demand is not met by the 
state, which is that auxihary school teachers be trained in specially 
constituted seminaries. 

We can not demand that the state establish a number of training 
schools whose graduates shall be competent auxiliary school teachers. 
Neither can we expect the normal school student to decide before he 
completes his training whether he will teach in a folk or auxiliary 
school. That would be possible if all teachers’ seminaries had a spe- 
cial course in auxiliary school pedagogy. In my opinion the highest 
educational authorities would only have to take another step in the 
same direction in which they are already working, and (to quote 
from a Prussian resolution of 1901 regarding the training of teach- 
ers) give the seminary students sound pedagogical training regard- 
ing the’ development of the spiritual life of the child in its normal 
course and its most important pathological conditions. Overcrowded 
as the pedagogical curriculum is to-day with material, it would 
seem that this thoroughness of training in these regards, which is so 
much to be desired, must remain as an unrealized hope. Specialists 

-_ can not and should not be reared in the schools for the training of 

: folk school teachers. However, greater interest may be aroused in 

the various branches of curative pedagogy; and as in recent years 
pupils have been allowed to visit now and again institutions for the 
deaf and dumb, the blind, or idiots, he might now also be permitted 
to see the Sirkines of an auxiliary school. Then he might be given 

a short introduction to the history, organization, and literature of 

the auxiliary school system. It would not be a bad idea if there 
should be a division for mentally deficient children in the practice 
school; the seminary student would be able to learn a great deal 











IER, M*- 


+ eee 





118 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


there. Of course the work in this department would be hard and 


not very pleasant for a beginner. On account of this the wish can 
not be realized. 

Therefore an effort should be made in another direction. Let the 
state establish, in a university town, a center for the auxiliary 
school teachers of a whole district. Let auxiliary school teachers, 
well versed in theory and practice, be called to positions there in a 
model auxiliary school. These teachers, together with medical men, 
jurists, and political economists from the university, should hold lec- 
tures each year for such seminary graduates as have been chesen at 
its recommendation. by the official authorities. A final examination, 
which would be considered equal to the examination for teachers in 
the intermediate schools or institutions of the deaf and dumb, would 
qualify the candidate to accept a position in the auxiliary school. 
Later it can be decided whether an examination for school principal 
is essential. At present such an examination is considered unneces- 
sary. A folk school rector is still always chosen as principal of an 
auxiliary school, who then has to direct the affairs of a folk school 
along with those of an auxiliary school.- This conception of the 
auxiliary school principal hitherto is not entirely false. The folk 
school rector who performs the duties connected with the auxiliary 
school with zeal and love may be of great service to it. Yet the more 
the before-mentioned desires regarding the preparation of auxiliary 
school teachers are fulfilled, the more must consideration be given to 
the auxiliary school having its own director. Of course he must be a 
teacher, not a physician, for even the medical questions, which are of 
the utmost importance, are to be considered from a pedagogical point 
of view. This will be seen again and again at teachers’ meetings. 
At these conferences questions regarding organization, methods, care 
of the soul, and psychological problems, as well as discussions on 
literature, may compose the entire programme. In many cases the 
school physician must be present at such meetings. It will then be 
helpful to have model lessons, particularly when it is a question of 
change of method. Each year principals and teachers are to be 
given opportunity to attend meetings of associations and societies in 
the interests of the auxiliary school work. 

In this section we have been speaking of male teachers and school- 
men; yet we do not wish to suggest that women should be excluded 
from auxiliary school work. Even though it would not be advisable 
to have only women to care for the education and instruction of men- 
tal defectives, as is often the case in other countries, yet we can not 
entirely dispense with the aid of women teachers. Strange to say, 
there are but few of these in German, and especially in Prussian 
auxiliary schools. For a long time their services in technical work 





i Aly! Pe 








THEIR PEDAGOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 119 


(hand work and gymnastics in girls’ classes) have been desired; 
but so far as I know there are still very few auxiliary schools in the 
Empire which have any women teachers. And yet the auxiliary 
school could only gain by it if the motherly influence of women 
teachers were added to the fatherly influence of the men. To be 
sure, it will be harder for a woman to handle a mixed class than for 
a man, but deep interest in the welfare of the weakly endowed ones 
will probably be able to overcome even this. 





XVI—THE PEDAGOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 
AUXILIARY SCHOOL. 


The auxiliary school question may truly be said to be many-sided ; 
it interests the philanthropist as well as the political economist and 
the jurist; it also concerns pastors, doctors, and military officers. 
Naturally the educator is the one chiefly interested; but before all 
the practical expert, who never gives up on account of difficulties, 
finds his profit here. 

A position in the auxiliary school is by no means a sinecure; but 
the expert in this school is lead by just the difficult duties of his office 
to make far-reaching theoretical researches. He discovers the vari- 
ous methods of psychological observation, and comes to find that a 
proper valuation of abnormal children may aid in the development 
of normal pupils. So by thoughtful study he may become a path- 
finder in the psycho-genetic field. His discoveries render service to 
the whole field of pedagogy in one way or another. 

This splendid outlook is not impossible, because the pedagogy of 
the auxiliary school is not yet fully developed, and the auxiliary 
school teacher for the present is still able to work without being 
narrowly restricted by any laws. Also the whole field of pedagogy 
is yet to-day undergoing further organization. Just think of the 
complete change which has been made in the instruction of the first 
school year, in the consideration of coeducation, etc.! Therefore 
experiments can be made in the auxiliary school; it can serve as a 
pedagogical seminary in the broadest sense of the term for all schools. 
We do not need to repeat that the auxiliary school is not to be a place 
for pedagogical vivisection, and the auxiliary school pupil is not to 
be made a mere subject for such experimentation, but it can very well 
be made the university for all schools, and especially for the folk 
schools, by the efforts of the theoretically and practically qualified 
workers therein. 





5 
& 





~s 


APPENDIX. 


[The following additional notes were prepared by Dr. L. R. Klemm, of the Bureau of 
Education. | 

The idea of establishing separate classes in large schools, or special schools 
in the more populous cities, for weak-minded and other backward children, is 
not new in America. The first school of this kind was established by Superin- 
tendent A. J. Rickoff in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1875. He adopted the idea from 
the Germans, who had begun to agitate this question as early as 1860. Many 
American educational thinkers and school officials have, it is true, for years 
advocated semiannual promotions in school, so as to enable pupils who can not 
be promoted to pick up the lost stitches of their course in four or five months, 
instead of losing an entire year. Dr. W. T. Harris adopted this system in St. 
Louis as early as 1875, and enlarged upon the subject in conventions and in the 
press. In some other cities this arrangement and others designed for similar 
purposes have been successfully carried into effect, and many a child who has 
lost a grade through disease, truancy, or mental weakness has been saved from 
being put back an entire year. Still, this does not protect the majority of pupils 
from being retarded by the progress of the intellectual misfits. s 

The Germans seem to be imbued with the idea that saving a mentally weak 
child for a life of usefulness will prevent a heavy drain upon the town poor fund 
later on, hence that the outlay for special schools will result in a double saving— 
a saving for the individual as well as for the community. 

The Mannheim system of grading the pupils of the public schools has been 
explained at some length on pages 48-47 of this work. As there stated, the 
schools of Mannheim are organized with three parallel courses, namely: A regu- 
lar course, which is followed by over 90 per cent of the pupils ; another to which 
pupils are transferred who for any reason need temporary aid; and a special 
course for weak-minded pupils. The diagram on page 122 illustrates this organ- 
ization. 

The school superintendent of Mannheim, Dr. A. Sickinger, argues that the 
organization of any city school system should be adapted to the natural capaci- 
ties of the children. In other words, as children should be clothed according to 
their size and fed according to their appetites, they should be mentally nourished 
and exercised according to their mental capacities and strength. He points to 
the well-known fact that many children at some point of their eight years’ 
course fail to be promoted, while some fail repeatedly. Such children reach the 
age for leaving school before completing the regular prescribed course, and 
hence remain educational torsos or cripples, as they never get the chance of 
rounding out their education. They fail to acquire the habit of intensive and 
conscientious work, the most beneficial fruit of rational school training; they 
are left without confidence in their own powers, without willingness to work or 
joy in regular occupation. 

Superintendent Sickinger suggests three ways for saving these elements of the 
city’s school population: (1) Decreasing the amount of matter to be learned by 
all the pupils, for it is not the extent or breadth, but the depth and definiteness 

121 


122 . THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


of the knowledge gained which decide the value of school education. This 
method would, however, place all the schools on a lower plane of usefulness, 
for it would effectually check the aspirations of gifted children to rise above 
mediocrity. (2) Decreasing the number of pupils assigned to each teacher, so 





Column A,—Regular grades containing more 
than 90% of the pupils. 

Column B,—Grades for temporary aid. 

Column C,—Auxilary grades or special schools. 

Column D,—Preparatory classes of high schools. 










<—————Regularly promoted. 
< — — —-—~—?Placed temporarily in separate classes 
| for individual attention and returned 
“AN VIL, Vill to regular grades. 
‘ Qneseedewa Placed in special classes owing to 
defective mentality. 


!d.—Institution for idiots. 
G.—Gymnasium. 
Rg.—Realgymnasium. 
y2 0. —Oberrealschule. 
R&.—Reformgymnasium. 


V1, Vil, 
vill 


f., 


‘jooyos ybiy sof 
6urvdasd uaspjiya pyblag 











DIAGRAM illustrating the organization of the elementary school system of Mannheim, 
Germany. Reprinted, with slight alterations, from Julius Moses’s Sonderkiassensystem 
der Mannheimer Volksschule (Mannheim, 1904). 


as to facilitate more individual treatment. This would necessitate a much 
greater outlay in maintaining the schools. (3) Sifting out the pupils unable to 
keep pace with the normally endowed and giving them special courses, one 
course being adapted to physically and intellectually weak children, another to 


; 
. 
| 
| 
| 
H 





ver rT eT ones ee 


ww) Se? ee 





a ee Ee te | 


v 


APPENDIX. 123 


those who by reason of absence or other unavoidable cause have fallen behind 
their classes, though they be intelligent enough to keep pace with the majority 
if given temporary aid. Doctor Sickinger’s chief object in the latter case is to 
avoid the repetition of a whole year’s studies, because that would occasion not 
only a great loss of time, but also a loss of self-respect, or else (if the attempt 
is made to go on) a dissipation of youthful.strength in keeping pace, which 
strength might be better utilized after a few weeks of special attention. 

The accompanying diagram is so easily understood that it requires no further 
explanation. It will suffice here to call attention to the hygienic advantages 
accruing from this plan of school organization. The special classes (columns 
B and C) offer children with defective eyesight, hearing, etc., a treatment which 
few, if any, regular schools could possibly give; they also act as a sort of hos- 
pital for poorly fed, anemic, and nervous children, many of whom can not keep 
their attention fixed upon one subject for a long period of time, but who get 
tired after a few minutes of concentrated attention. 


SUPPLEMENTARY STATISTICS. 


The “ Zentralblatt fiir die gesamte Unterrichtsverwaltung in Preussen,” the 
official organ of the Prussian minister of public instruction, gives in its Sep- 
tember-October number of 1907 comprehensive statistics (for 1907) of auxiliary 
schools in the different provinces of Prussia. These are summarized as follows: 


Ausiliary schools of Prussia. 























Schools Paha A EGU “ 204 
I ee es 12, 734 
Classes and teachers DAE hel 3. SANS II" AIEEE GIA SO ad ES 690 
ETE SE Spe ee toe ee CRO ees 544 
a 2a a cr ge > dea 146 
Average number of pupils to a school__ BYE: RSET A pit TEA eee 62. 4 





Average number of pupils to a teacher ae es Si Eee 

















- 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Norn.—The brief bibliographies prefixed to the several chapters in the original work 
are here brought together in order to facilitate reference. The order of arrangement of 
the original has been retained, so that the numbers and subjects of the different divisions 
correspond with those of the chapters of the text. 


I.—HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUXILIARY SCHOOLS. 


Berichte tiber die Verbandstage der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. Jn Zeitschrift 
fiir Kinderforschung, Langensalza. 

BOsBAUER, H., Mrkuas, L., und ScHiNerR, H. Handbuch der Schwachsinnigen- 
fiirsorge. Leipzig und Wien, Teubner und Graeser, 1905. 173 Seiten. 

GERHARDT, J. P. Zur Geschichte und Literatur des Idiotenwesens in Deutsch- 
land. Alsterdorfer Anstalten bei Hamburg, Selbstverlag, 1904, 

GizyckI, P. von. Der Unterricht fiir schwachsinnige Kinder. Jn Vossische 
Zeitung, Sonntagsbeilage, Oktober 1903. 

Hintz, O. Die Erziehung abnormer Kinder in Normalschulen. In Neue Bah. 
nen, 1897, IV. 

Welche pidagogischen Massnahmen eignen sich fiir den Unterricht solcher 
Kinder, welche durch die Volksschule nicht geniigende Férderung er- 
fahren? Berlin, Loewenthal, 1898. 

London School Board. Annual Report of the Special Schools Sub-Committee, 
1903. 

Mitteilungen des Vorstandes des deutschen Hilfsschulverbandes. Jn Die Hilfs- 
schule. : 

Nebenklassen fiir schwachbegabte Kinder in Berlin. Jn Zeitschrift fiir Schul- 
gesundheitspflege, 1900, 1901. 

Piper, H. Die Fiirsorge fiir die schwachsinnigen Kinder. Jn Deutsche Schule: 
Monatsschrift. Leipzig, Klinckhardt, 1897, 3. 

REINKE, W. Die Unterweisung und Erziehung schwachsinniger (schwachbe2- 
fihigter) Kinder. Berlin, L. Oehmigke, 1897. 

Ricuter, K. Die Bestrebungen fiir die Bildung und Erziehung schwachsin- 
niger Kinder in Italien. Jn Zeitschrift fiir die Behandlung Schwach- 
sinniger und Epileptischer, 1901, 7-10. 

ScHENK, A. Reisebericht. Jn Kinderfehler, 1900. 

Sv6Tzner, H. Uber Schulen fiir schwachbefiihigte Kinder. Erster Entwurf zur 
Begriindung derselben. Leipzig und Heidelberg, C. F. Winter, 1864. 

TATZNER, P. Die Entstehung des Gedankens, besondere Schulen fiir schwach- 
sinnige Kinder zu errichten. Jn Zeitschrift fiir die Behandlung Schwach- 
sinniger und Epileptischer, 1900. 





*A much more comprehensive and systematically classified bibliography of auxiliary 


schools (Fiihrer durch die Literatur des Hilfschulwesens), compiled by Doctor Maennel, ~ 


is in course of publication in monthly parts in Die Kinderfehler (Langensalza, H. Beyer 
& Séhne). The publication began with the October number of 1906, and in September, 
1907, had covered 19 of the 24 proposed classes or divisions of the subject. 


125 


126 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


U. S. Bureau of Education. Schools for the defective classes. Report of the 
Commissioner of Education. Washington, 1903. 


WALKER, W. Die neuesten Bestrebungen und Erfahrungen auf dem Gebiete 
der Erziehung der Schwachen. Dissertation. Solothurn, 1903. 


WINTERMANN, A. Die Hilfsschulen Deutschlands und der deutschen Schweiz. 
Langensalza, Beyer und Séhne, 1898. 


ZiecLerR, C. Hilfsschulen fiir Schwachbefihigte. Jn Reins Enzyklopidisches 
Handbuch. 


II.—REASONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AUXILIARY SCHOOLS. 





ALTENBURG, O. Die Kunst des psychologischen Beobachtens. Berlin, Reuther 
und Reichard, 1898. ; ; 

BartHoutp, K. Die Idiotenanstalten und die Hilfsschulen, eine Grenzregulie- 
rung. Jn Zeitschrift fiir die Behandlung Schwachsinniger und Epilep- 
tischer, Dezember, 1901. Dresden, Burdach. : 

Benpa, TH. Die Schwachbegabten auf den hédheren Schulen. Berlin und 
Leipzig, Teubner, 1902. 18 Seiten. 

Bericht tiber den I. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands am 12.—-13. 
April 1898. Hannover. 

GORKE, M. Die Fiirsorge fiir geistig zuriickgebliebene Kinder. Ein Reise- 
bericht. In Breslauer Statistik, Genossenschafts-Buchdruckerei, 1900. 


KIELHORN, H. Die Erziehung geistig zuriickgebliebener Kinder in Hilfsschulen. 
Osterwieck, Zickfeld, 1897. 

Kocu, J. L. A. Die psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten in der Schule. In 
A. Bauer: Das kranke Schulkind. Stuttgart, Enke, 1902. 

LAQuER, L. Hilfsschulen fiir schwachbefihigte Kinder, ihre irztliche und 
soziale Bedeutung. Wiesbaden, Bergmann, 1901. 

Uber schwachsinnige Schulkinder. Halle, Marhold, 1902. 

LEUBUSCHER, G. Die schulirztliche Titigkeit in Stidten und auf dem Lande. 
In Verhandlungen der III. Jahresversammlung des Allgemeinen Deut- 
schen Vereins fiir Schulgesundheitspflege. Berlin und Leipzig, Teubner, 
1902. 

RicHTER, K.. Die Leipziger Schwachsinnigenschule. Leipzig, Hesse, 1893. 

SrrimMpety, L. Pidagogische Pathologie. Leipzig, Ungleich, 1897. 225 Seiten. 

Triprer, J. Die Anfiinge der abnormen Erscheinungen im kindlichen Seelen- 
leben. Altenburg, O. Bonde, 1902. 32 Seiten. 

Wuits, J. H. Volksschule und Hilfsschule. Thorn, Lambeck, 1901. 43 Seiten. 


III.—ADMISSION PROCEDURE. 


BrerKHAN, O. Uber den angeborenen und friiherworbenen Schwachsinn. Braun- 
schweig, Vieweg, 1904. 98 Seiten. 


DeitzscH, F. Das schwachbegabte Kind im Hause und in der Schule. Jn 


Bericht iiber den IV. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. 
FRENZEL, Fr. Die Hilfsschulen fiir schwachbegabte Kinder. Hamburg, L. Voss, 
1903. 88 Seiten. 


Grote, F. Koénnen Kinder zwangsweise der Hilfsschule zugefiihrt werden? In 
Bericht iiber den IV. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. 


a alia bd end 














BIBLIOGRAPHY. 127 


KreLHoRN, H. Die Organisation der Hilfsschule. Jn Bericht iiber den III. 
Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. Beyer und Séhne, Langen- 
-salza, 1901. 

Laquer, L. Die iirztliche Feststellung der verschiedenen Formen des Schwach- 
sinns in den ersten Schuljahren. Miinchen, Seiz und Schauer, 1904. 14 
Seiten. x 

Uber schwachsinnige Schulkinder. Halle, C. Marhold, 1902. 44 Seiten. 

LIEBMANN, A. Die Untersuchung und Behandlung geistig zuriickgebliebener 

Kinder. Berlin, Berlinische Verlagsanstalt, 1898. 170 Seiten. 


Mosss, J. Das Sonderklassensystem der Mannheimer Volksschule. Mann- 
heim, Bensheimer, 1904. 70 Seiten. | 


Miter, F. W. Uber den Schwachsinn. Jn Bericht tiber den III. Verbands- 
tag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. 


REINKE, W. Die Unterweisung und Erziehung schwachsinniger Kinder. 
Berlin, L. Oehmigke, 1897. 


SickincErR, A. Der Unterrichtsbetrieb in grossen Schulkérpern sei nicht 
schematisch-einheitlich, sondern  differenziert-einheitlich. Mannheim, 
Bensheimer, 1904. 172 Seiten. 


STADELMANN, N. Schwachbeanlagte Kinder, ihre Férderung und Behandlung. 
Miinchen, Arztliche Rundschau, 1904. 


ZIEHEN, TH. Die Geisteskrankheiten des Kindesalters. Berlin, Reuther und 
Reichard, 1902. 


ILV.—PARENTS AND ENVIRONMENT OF AUXILIARY SCHOOL PUPILS. 


Bosspavuer, H., Mrxuias, L., und Scurner, H. Handbuch der Schwachsinnigen- 
Fiirsorge. Leipzig und Wien, Teubner und Graeser, 1905. 173 Seiten. 


ScHMIpD-MoNNARD. Ursachen der Minderbegabung von Schulkindern. Jn Zeit- 
schrift fiir Schulgesundheitspflege, 1900. 


Trurer, J. Die Anfiinge der abnormen Erscheinungen im kindlichen Seelen- 
leben. Altenburg, Bonde, 1902. 32 Seiten. 


V.—HEALTH CONDITIONS OF AUXILIARY SCHOOL PUPILS. 


Bauer, A. Das kranke Schulkind. Stuttgart, Enke, 1902. 


CASSEL, J. Was lehrt die Untersuchung der geistig minderwertigen Schul- 
kinder im IX. Berliner Schulkreise. Berlin, Coblentz, 1901. 52 Seiten. 


Doi, K. Arztliche Untersuchungen aus der Hilfsschule fiir schwachsinnige 
Kinder zu Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe, Macklot, 1902. 62 Seiten. 


GeteKe, T. Uber die Beziehungen des Sehorgans zum jugendlichen Schwach- 
sinn. Halle, C. Marhold, 1904. 


GORKE, M. Die Fiirsorge fiir geistig zurtickgebliebene Kinder. Breslau, Genos- 
senschafts-Buchdruckerei, 1900. 


Griespacn, H. Uber den Stand der Schulhygiene in Deutschland. Jn Verhand- 
lungen der Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Arzte, 1903. 59 
Seiten. 


128 THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 


LEUBUSCHER, G. Die schulirztliche Titigkeit in Staidten und auf dem Lande. 


In Verhandlungen der III. Jahresversammlung des Allgemeinen Deut- 
schen Vereins fiir Gesundheitspflege. Berlin und Leipzig, Teubner, 1902. 


Staatliche Schulirzte. Berlin, Reuther und Reichard, 1902. 


ScuMip-Monnarp, K. Uber den Hinfluss der Schule auf die Kérperentwicklung 
und Gesundheit der Schulkinder. Hamburg und Leipzig, Voss, 1898. 


Wutrr, M. Stellung und Aufgabe des Arztes in der Iilfsschule. Jn Bericht 
iiber den I. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. 


ZIEHEN, Tu. Arztliche Beobachtung. Reins Enzyklopiidisches Handbuch der 
Piidagogik, I. ; 


VI.—AUXILIARY SCHOOL PUPILS AND THEIR CHARACTERIZATION. 


ALTENBURG, O. Die Kunst des psychologischen Beobadhtens: Berlin, Reuther 
und Reichard, 1898. 


DeLiTzscH. Grundlinien zur psychischen Diagnose in der Hilfsschule. Sich- 
sische Schulzeitung, 1904. 


EMMINGHAUS. Die psychischen St6rungen im Kindesalter. Tiibingen, Laupp. 

FRENZEL, Fr. Das Personalheft im Dienste der Schwachsinnigenbildung. Jn 
Zeitschrift fiir die Behandlung Schwachsinniger und Epileptischer, 1902, 
9-10. 

KANNEGIESSER, C. Ubersicht iiber die bei Abfassung der Charakteristiken 
schwachsinniger Schiiler zu beobachtenden Merkmale. Jn Zeitschrift fiir 
Schulgesundheitspflege, 1898, S. 247-255. 


KLABE, H. Anleitung zur Abfassung von Seta hapate nbaseherie ng Leipzig, 
Merseburger, 1901. 12 Seiten. 


Lay, W. A. Experimentelle Didaktik. Wiesbaden, 1903. I. Teil, 595 Seiten. 

Ricutrer, K. Ubersicht der bei Abfassung von Charakteristiken der Kinder 
einer Hilfsschule zu beobachtenden Merkmale. Jn Zeitschrift fiir Behand- 
lung Schwachsinniger, 1894, 5-6. 

Saupre, W. C. Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des kindlichen Geistes. Jn Jahr- 
buch des Vereins fiir wissenschaftliche Pidagogik, 1876. 


StrRUMPELL, L. Die Verschiedenheit der Kindernaturen. Leipzig, Béhme, 1894. 


TIEDEMANN, D. Beobachtungen tiber die Entwicklung der Seelenfiihigkkeiten 
bei Kindern. Altenburg, Bonde, 1897. 


TRUPER, J. Schema zur Feststellung des leiblichen und seelischen Zustandes 
eines Kindes. Jn Kinderfehler, 1897, 5-6. 


Urer, CH. Das Wesen des Schwachsinns. Langensalza, Beyer. 
VII.— AUXILIARY SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 


BértcerR, R. Uber Zentralisation der Hilfsklassen fiir Schwachbefiihigte. In 


Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 1904, 42-48, und Bericht tiber die XI. Konferenz . 


iiber das Idioten- und Hilfsschulwesen. Stettin, 1904. 

EuLenserG, H., und Bacu, TH. Schulgesundheitslehre. Das Schulhaus und das 
Unterrichtswesen vom hygienischen Standpunkte aus. 2 Bde. Berlin, 
Heine, 1900. 1388 Seiten. 

SIEGERT, W. Bau des Schulhauses. Jn Reins Enzyklopidisches Handbuch, 
Bd. I. 




















BIBLIOGRAPHY. 129 


VIII.—CLASSIFICATION OF PUPILS AND NUMBER IN A CLASS. 


BERKHAN, O. Uber die Grundsitze, nach denen Hilfsklassen einzurichten sind. 
In Zeitschrift fiir die Behandlung Schwachsinniger und Epileptischer, 
1881-82. 

Borrerr, R. Uber Zentralisation der Hilfsklassen fiir Schwachbefiihigte. Jn 

| Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 1904, 42-48, und Bericht iiber die 
Konferenz fiir das Idioten- und Hilfsschulwesen. Stettin, 1904. 

DArr, A. Uber Errichtung von Klassen fiir Schwachsinnige. Jn Zeitschrift ftir 
Schulgesundheitspflege, 1894, S. 213. 

FRENZEL, Fr. Die Organisation der Hilfsschule. Jn Medizinisch-pidagogische 
Monatsschrift fiir die gesamte Sprachheilkunde, 1902, V. - 

KIELHORN, H. Die Organisation der Hilfsschule. Jn Bericht iiber den II. und 
III. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands, 1899, 1901. 

KuAse, K. Entwurf zum Ausbau der Hilfsschule zu Halle a. 8S. Leipzig, Mer- 
seburger, 1900. 

Lorrer, F. Uber Organisation von Hilfsschulen. In Kinderfehler, III, 6. 


IX.—THE DAILY PROGRAMME. 


Baur, A. Die Ermitidung der Schiiler im neuen Lichte. Berlin, Gerdes und 
Hédel, 1902. 

FLatTAu TH. 8. Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Uberbiirdungsfrage an der 
Hand der amtlichen Verordnungen und Gesetze. Jn Zeitschrift fiir pida- 
gogische Psychologie und Pathologie, 1899, S. 197 ff. 

GriespacH, H. Uber den Stand der Schulhygiene in Deutschland. Jn Verhand- 
lungen der Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Arzte zu Kassel, 
1903. Leipzig, Vogel, 1904. 59 Seiten. 

Hetier, TH. Uber Ermiidungsmessungen bei schwachsinnigen Kindern. Jn 
Zeitschrift fiir die Behandlung Schwachsinniger und Epileptischer, 1898, 
12. . 

KRAEPELIN, E. Zur Hygiene der Arbeit. Jena, Fischer, 1896. 

Scuitter, H. Der Stundenplan. Berlin, Reuther und Reichard, 1897. 


X.—THE CURRICULUM.’ 


BoopsTgeIn, O. Die Hilfsschule fiir schwachbefihigte Kinder zu Elberfeld. 
Elberfeld, Friderichs, 1901. 

GOrKE, M. Die Fiirsorge fiir geistig zuriickgebliebene Kinder. Breslau, Genos- 
senchafts-Ruchdruckerei, 1900. 

Lehrplan fiir die Hilfsschule fiir Schwachbefiihigte in Leipzig. reves Hesse 
und Becker, 1903. 

Lehrplan fiir die Hilfsschule fiir schwachbefihigte Schulkinder zu Braun- 
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leptischer, 1881-82. 

Scumitz, A. Zweck und Einrichtung der Hilfsschulen. Langensalza, Beyer 
und Séhne, 19038. 

TATZNER und PRuGGMAYER. Die Nachhilfeschule zu Dresden-Altstadt. Dresden, 
Pissler, 1901. 


14659—07——_9 


130° THE AUXILIARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 
XI.—METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. 


BarTHOLD, K. Der erste vorbereitende Unterricht fiir Schwach- und Blédsin- 
nige. Gladbach und Leipzig, Schellmann, 1881. 


Basepow, K. Handfertigkeitsunterricht fiir Knaben in der Hilfsschule. Jn 
Bericht iiber den III. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. 


Bericht iiber die XI. Konferenz fiir das Idioten- und Hilfsschulwesen. 

BoopstEIn, O. Fromme Wiinsche fiir den weiteren Ausbau der Hilfsschule. 
Vortrag. Dresden, Pissler. 

BOsBAvUER, H., MIKias, L., und ScHINER, H. Handbuch der Schwachsinnigen- 
fiirsorge. Leipzig und Wien, Teubner und Graeser, 1905. 173 Seiten. 

CoLtozzA. Psychologie und Paidagogik des Kinderspiels; deutsch von Chr. Ufer. 
Altenburg, Bonde, 1901. 

De.iTtzscH. Grundlinien zur psychischen Diagnose in der Hilfsschule. In 
Saichsische Schulzeitung, 1904. 
Demoor, J. Die anormalen Kinder und ihre erziehliche Behandlung’in Haus 

und Schule; deutsch von Chr. Ufer. Altenburg, Bonde, 1901. 
EXNDERLIN, M. Erziehung durch Arbeit. Leipzig, Frankenstein und Wagner, 
1903. 112 Seiten. 


Fucus, A. Schwachsinnige Kinder, ihre sittliche und intellektuelle Rettung.: 


Giitersloh, Bertelsmann, 1899. 

GIESE, J. Das Rechnen auf der Unterstufe der Hilfsschule. Jn Bericht tiber 
den IV. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. 

Groos, K. Die Spiele der Menschen. Jena, Fischer, 1897. 560 Seiten. 

HetiER, TH. Grundriss der Heilpiidagogik. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1904. 

Hencek und Travupt. Schafft frohe Jugend. Thiiringer Verlagsanstalt von 
Henck und Traudt, 1904. 156 Seiten. 

KIELHORN, H. Die Organisation der Hilfsschule (Der Unterricht). Jn Bericht 
iiber den IV. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. Hannover, 
Schrader, 1903. 

Mayer, O. Welche Besonderheiten ergeben sich fiir den Sachunterricht in 
der Hilfsschule? Jn Bericht tiber den IV. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen 
Deutschlands. 

STRAKERJAHN. Der erste Sprechunterricht in der Hilfsschule. Jn Bericht tiber 
den II. Verbandstag der Hilfsschulen Deutschlands. 


XII.—DISCIPLINE IN AUXILIARY SCHOOLS. 


BoopstEIn, O. Fromme Wiinsche fiir den weiteren Ausbaw der Hilfsschule. 
Dresden, Pissler. 4 

BosBAvER, H., Mrxuas, L., und Scurner, H. Handbuch der Schwachsinnigen- 
fiirsorge. Leipzig und Wien, Teubner und Graeser, 1905. 173 Seiten. 

Denkschrift betreffend die besonderen Verhiltnisse und Bediirfnisse der An- 
stalten fiir Idioten und Epileptische im Rahmen der Irrengesetzgebung. 
Idstein, Grandpierre, 1904. 

GorKe, M. Die Fiirsorge fiir geistig zuriickgebliebene Kinder. Breslau, Ge- 
nossenschafts-Buchdruckerei, 1900. 

Hewtier, TH. Grundriss der Heilpiidagogik. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1904. 

Pieer, H. Die Fiirsorge fiir die schwachsinnigen Kinder. In Die deutsche 
Schule, I, 3. Berlin, Klinkhardt. 


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Te ee 


abate ves 





ave ee te 


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BIBLIOGRAPHY. 131 


ScHwENK. Die Zuchtmittel in unseren Anstalten. Verlag der Idsteiner An- 
stalten, 1899. 


XIII.—PREPARATION OF THE PUPILS FOR CHURCH COMMUNION. 


KrecHorn, H. Der Konfirmandenunterricht in der Hilfsschule. Langensalza, 
Beyer und Séhne, 1904. - 

LUHMANN, F. von. Der Konfirmandenunterricht bei Geistesschwachen. In 
Bericht iiber die XI. Konferenz fiir das Idioten- und Hilfsschulwesen. 
Idstein, Grandpierre, 1904. 


. 
XIV.—THE COMMUNITY AND THE STATE IN THEIR RELATIONS TO AUXILIARY 
SCHOOLS. 


BoéssBaver, H., Mrxuas, L., und ScHINER, H. Handbuch der Schwachsinnigen- 
fiirsorge. Leipzig und Wien, Teubner und Graeser, 1905. 

DAMASCHKE, A. Aufgaben der Gemeindepolitik. Jena, Fischer, 1901. 220 
Seiten. 

FRENzEL, Fr. Die Hilfsschulen fiir schwachbegabte Kinder. Hamburg und 
Leipzig, Voss, 1903. 88 Seiten. 

Hewtter, TH. Grundriss der Heilpidagogik. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1904. 

Jahresberichte iiber die Hilfsschule fiir Schwachbefihigte in Leipzig. Leipzig, 
Hesse und Becker. 

KIELHORN, H. Der schwachsinnige Mensch im $6ffentlichen Leben. Jn Zeit- 
sehrift fiir Schwachsinnige und Epileptische, 1889, 3-5. 

Die Fiirsorge fiir geistig Minderwertige. Jn Jugendfiirsorge, 1901, VII. -~ 

NAUMANN, Fr. Der Wert der Schwachen fiir die Gesamtheit. Berlin-Schéne- 

berg, Buchverlag der “ Hilfe,” 1902. 


ScHMID-MONNARD und HarTMANN, A. Soziale Fiirsorge fiir Kinder im schul- 
pflichtigen Alter. Jena, Fischer, 1904. 


WANKE, G. Psychiatrie und Pidagogik. Wiesbaden, Bergmann, 1905. 
XV.—TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS OF AUXILIARY SCHOOLS. 


BoopstEIN. Fromme Wiinsche fiir den weiteren Ausbau der Hilfsschule. Dres- 
den, Piissler. 

Boéssauer, H., Mrkxias, L., und Scurner, H. Handbuch der Schwachsinnigen- 
fiirsorge. Leipzig und Wien, Teubner und Graeser. 

Demoor, J. Die anormalen Kinder und ihre erziehliche Behandlung in Haus 
und Schule. Altenburg, Bonde, 1901. 

GoérKe, M. Die Fiirsorge fiir geistig zuriickgebliebene Kinder. Breslau, 1900. 

HELLER, Tu. Grundriss der Heilpiidagogik. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1904. 

Scuremwer, H. Fiir das Wohl der Dummen in unseren Offentlichen Schulen. 
In Die Kinderfehler, 1900. - 


XVI.—PEDAGOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF AUXILIARY SCHOOLS. 


Spirzner, A. Die wissenschaftliche und praktische Bedeutung der pidago- 
gischen Pathologie fiir die Volksschulpidagogik. Jn Deutsche Schule, 
1898, 1-4. 





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INDEX. 


{The following abbreviations are used in this index: a. s., auxiliary school; a. ss., aux- 
iliary schools ; assn., association. ] 





Accidents to children, relation to abnormal 
development, 52. 

Administration of justice, recommendation 
for special treatment of defectives, 
112: 

Alcoholism in parents, relation to abnormal 
development of children, 52. 

Arithmetic, general rules for instruction 
in, in a. ss., 85. 

outline of instruction in a. s. of Halle, 
88, 91. 

practical instruction in a. ss., 96. 

study of, in a. ss., 82. 

Army, history of recruits for, with respect 
to a. s. record, 112. 

Articulation and speech correction in a. ss., 
87. - 

Associations for education and care of 
defectives, outline of Berlin organi- 
zation, 106-109. 

outline of Kénigsberg organization, 110-— 
111. 
outline of Leipzig organization, 110. 

Attendance at a. ss., factors determining, 79. 

Australia, status of a. ss., 22. 

Austria, status of a. s. instruction, 18. 

Auxiliary school association, Kénigsberg, 
110. 

Auxiliary schools, blanks suggested for the 
teacher in transferring pupils to, 36. 

buildings suggested for the use of, 76. 

duties of the school physician, 53. 

status and outline of organization of, at 
Mannheim, 43-47. 

Belgium, status of a. s. instruction, 21. 
Berlin, association for the education and 
-eare of backward children, 106. 
plan for instruction of defectives, 15. 
reasons advanced for nonestablishment 

Of ‘87 ‘S8.; 15; 

Bibliography of a. ss., 125-131. 

Boarding schools for defectives, reasons 
quoted for day schools becoming, 100. 

Bresgens, M., researches respecting. rela- 
tion of diseases of tonsils and nose 
to mental development, 56. 

Brussels, blanks in use in the a. s., 39. 

music in the a. s., 96. 

“Changed accountability,” consideration of, 
with respect to punishment of de- 
fectives, 112. 





Child psychology, results of its study in re- 
vealing necessity for a. s., 29. 
Church authorities, cooperation in giving 

religious instruction in a. ss., 102. 

Classification of pupils, in a. ss., 78. 

results of plan followed at Mannheim, 44, 

Coeducation in a. ss., 80. 

Cologne, assistance of associations in car- 
ing for a. s.,.111. 

Commission for the instruction and educa- 
tion of backward children, Leipzig, 
110. 55 > 

Common school, its failure to meet the 
needs of defectives, 30. 

Compulsory attendance on a. ss., demand 
for laws as to, 104. 

Compulsory power of transfer to a. &., 
recommendation for, by German 
auxiliary school association, 47. 

Confirmation of a. s. pupils, 101. 

Continuation schools, demand for work of, 
in connection with defectives, 104. 

Corporal punishment, condemnation of its 
use in a. ss., 98. 

opinions of those favoring moderate 
use~in a. s., 99. 

Course of study for a. ss., arithmetic, 85. 

drawing, 85. 

history, 84. 

home geography, 85. 

natural history and nature study, 85. 

outline used in Halle, 88. 

preparation not to be intrusted to teach- 
ers of regular schools, 83. 

problems connected with, 86. 

religion, 84. 

singing and gymnastics, 85. 

use of Robinson Crusoe in connection 
with, 85. 

Cramer, Professor, recommendations made 
jointly with Professors Kripelin 
and Kleintfeller as to judicial treat- 
ment of defectives, 113. 

Criminal psychology, consideration urged 
in connection with defectives, 112. 

Daily programmes of a. ss., general rules 
for making, 81-83. 

Day auxiliary schools, reasons for their 
superiority over boarding schools, 
100, 


133 


134 


Defectives, general physical peculiarities, 

34. 
suggested methods for teachers in de- 
termining who are, 35. 

Demoor, J., suggested study by teachers of 
his Die anormalen Kinder und ihre 
erziehliche Behandlung in Haus und 
Schule, 116. 

Denmark, a. s. at Copenhagen, 21. 

Denominational question as to conduct of 
a. ss., 80. 

Discipline in the a. s., 97, 101. 

Diseases of children, revelation through 
medical examination in a. s. of Halle, 
56. 


Drawing, outline of work in a. s. of Halle, | 


91. 
place in course of study recommended, 
85. 

Dresden, establishment of auxiliary classes, 
14. 

Economic conditions of cities, relation to 
number of defectives, 79. 

Employments for former pupils of a. ss., 
the kinds in which they may suc- 
ceed, 105. : 

: England, status of a. s. instruction, 21. 

Epidemic diseases, claim by Witte that a. 
ss. are sources of, 28. 

Equipment of a. s. buildings and grounds, 
general suggestions, 77. 

Ethical and social defects of abnormal 
children, 34. 

Experimental psychology, denial by Witte 
of its claim of entire dependence of 
mental upon physical life, 29. 

Eye diseases, relation to mental develop- 
ment as noted in a. s. of Halle, 56. 

Folk-school teachers, reasons for lack of 
success as teachers of a. s., 116. 

France, lack of a. ss., 20. 

Frankfort on the Main, blanks in use re- 
lating to transfer of defectives, 36- 
39. 

Frenzel, Fr., report as to a. s. assn. at 
Korfigsberg, 110. 

Fuchs, A., suggested study by teachers of 
his Schwachsinnige Kinder ihre sit- 


tliche und intellektuelle Rettung, 
116. 
Geography, outline of work in a. s. of 


Halle, 90. 
its place in the a. s. course of study, 85. 
Geometry, outline of instruction in a. s. 
of Halle, 91. 

German, outline of instruction in, in a. s. 
of Halle, 91. , 
German a. s. assn., its recommendation as 

to compulsory transfer to a. s., 47. 
study of reports of, suggested for teach- 
ers, 116. 
German jurists, twenty-seventh conference 
~ of, consideration of legal status of 
defectives, 113. 
Gizycki, P. von, statement by, concerning 
early a. ss. in Berlin, 14. 





INDEX. 


Godtfring, principal of a. s., plan of speech 
correction introduced by, in Schles- 
wig-Holstein a. s., 87. 

Goérke, Dr. M., assertion of, as to corrupt 
influence of public institutions for 
defectives, 100. 

suggested form for record of a. s. pupils, 
61. 

Grading in a. ss., 80. 

Griesbach, Professor, statement as to neces- 
sary qualifications for a. s. physi- 


cian, 58. 

Gymnasium of a. s., equipment suggested 
for, 77." 

Gymnastics, outline of work in a. s. of 


Halle, 91. 

Gymnastics, instruction in a. s., 85. 

Gymnastics and singing, outline of first 
year instruction in a. s. of Halle, 
88. 

Halle, admission blank used in a. s., 42. 

a. S. course of study for first year, 88. 

a. 8S. course of study for last year, 90. 

classification of pupils in a. s., 78. 

duties of a. s. physician, 53. 

general plan of a. s. course of study for 
first and last years, 86. ; 

method of collecting data from folk 
schools as to defectives, 43. 

religious instruction in a. s. given by 
clergymen, 102. 

satisfactory results of consultations with 
parents of defectives, 51. 

statistics of a. s. attendance, 79. 

Hand work, outline of course in a. s. of 
Halle, 91. 

Harris, Dr. W. T., reference to adoption of 
system of semiannual promotions 
while superintendent at St. Louis, 
sb 3 Reha e 

Haupt, Mr., proposal for establishing aux- 
iliary classes in Halle, 13. ' 

Health conditions of pupils in a. s. of 


Halle, 55. 

Health records of pupils in a. s. of Halle, 
54. 

Health statistics of pupils of a. 8. of Halle, 
55. 


Heller, Th., suggested study by teachers of 
his Grundriss der Heilpiidagogik, 
116. 

Hellstrém, Dr. G., statistics of defectives in 
Stockholm schools given by, 20. 
History, general place in the course of 

study of a. ss., 84. 
outline of instruction in, in a. s. of 
Halle, 90. 
Holland, status of a. s. instruction, 21. 
Home conditions of defectives, observation 
of, by the teacher, 35. 
recommendation that the teacher make 
eareful inquiry as to, 52. 
Hours per week given to different studies 
in a.'s. of Halle, 92. 
Hungary, awakening of interest in the edu- 
cation of defectives, 18. 





INDEX. 


Hygienic conditions of buildings for a. s., 
general rules, 77. 

Infirmary of a. s., suggestions concerning, 
77. 

Intermissions in daily programmes of a. s., 
83. 

Italy, status of a. s. instruction, 19. 

Kern, K. F., cooperation of, with Th. 
Stétzner in establishing section for 
pedagogical hygiene, 14. _ 

lectures on education. of defective chil- 
dren, 13. 

Kielhorn, H., reference to work for boys 

after leaving a. s., 112. 
suggestions regarding use of the Ten 
Commandments, 103. 

Kliibe, K., record suggested by, for a. s. 
pupils, 63. 

Kleinfeller, Professor, recommendations 
made jointly with Professors Krape- 
lin and Cramer as to judicial treat- 
ment of defectives, 113. 

Klemm, Dr. L. R., article on auxiliary 
school, particularly from American 
point of view, 121. 

Kénigsberg, outline of purposes and organi- 
zation of a. s. assn., 110. 

Krapelin, Professor, recommendations made 
jointly with Professors Cramer and 
Kleinfeller as to judicial treatment 
of defectives, 113. 

Lay [W. A.J], records of defectives illus- 
trating plan proposed by, 71-74. 

suggested points to be followed in making 
record of defectives, 70. 

Landenberger, Inspector, advice against 
overloading the defective child with 
religious material, 101. 

Legal responsibility of defectives, conditions 
to be considered in connection with 
administration of justice, 113. 

Leipzig, outline of organization of commis- 
sion for the instruction and educa- 
tion of backward children, 110. 

plan of K. Richter of sending out ques- 
tionnaires respecting former pupils, 
it 
questionnaire in use for obtaining data as 
_ to defectives, 39. 

Lesson periods in a. ss., 81. 

Literature of a. s. instruction, works rec- 
ommended for teachers, 116. 

Maljarewski, Doctor, reference to institu- 
tion for defectives at St. Petersburg 
managed by, 20. 

Mannheim, procedure in admitting pupils 
to a. s., 43-47. 

number of pupils in a. s., 79. 
reference to system of grading, 121. 

Manual labor, general rules as to employ- 
ment in a. ss., 85. 

Marking pupils in a. ss., register in use at 
Halle, 61. 

Materialism, Witte’s claim that the a. s. 
stands for, 29. 

Medical examination of defectives, 
gested form of record, 54. 


sug- 





135 


Medical examination of children in schools 
of Halle, 54. 

Medical specialists, their cooperation with 
school physician at Halle, 56. 
“Medical pedagogy,’ material view of 

; brain processes taken by, 29. 
Medical treatment for defectives, notice to 
parents of need of, in Halle, 55. 
Memory, weakness of, in mental defectives,. 
33. 
Mental defectives, advantages of sending 
them ‘to a. s. early, 48. 
Mental deficiency, relation to ethical and 
social abnormality, 34. 
relation to physical abnormality, 34. 
Mental fatigue, liability of weak-minded 
pupils to, 33. 
programmes arranged to minimize in 
a. ss., 81. 
Method of instruction followed in the 
school for defectives established at 
Rome by Dr. Sante de Sanctis, 19. 
Method of instruction in the a. s., neces- 
sity of coordinating new material 
with old, 95. ; 
Model a. ss., suggested establishment of, in 
university towns, 118. 
Modeling, its importance in the a. s. course 
of study, 93. 
Moral defects in relation to mental defi- 
ciency, 35. 
Morin, Dr. J., his statement respecting lack 
of a. ss. in France, 20. 
Mothers of deficient children, consultation 
with, by the teacher, 35. 
Music, value in a. ss., 96. . 
Naray, Dr. A. von, organization of a. ss. 
in Hungary urged by, 18. 
recommendations as to training of teach- 
ers of Hungary for a. ss., 18. 
Natural history instruction in a. ss., 85. 
Natural science, outline of work in a. s. of 
Halle, 90. 
Nature study instruction in a. ss., 85. 
Naumann, Fr., statement respecting the 
state’s duty to the lowest class of 
society, 108. 
Nerve diseases of children, duty of a. s. 
physician to study, 57. 
Newspapers, use in higher classes of a. ss., 96. 
Norway, status of a. s. instruction, 21. 
Parental cooperation, its desirability in 
connection with transfer to a. s., 47. 
“ Parents’ evenings,” arrangements for, ad- 
vised, to gain cooperation of pa- 
rents, 99. 
Parents of defectives, difficulty of gain- 
ing their cooperation, 99. 
general economic condition of, 49. 
methods of getting data from, at Halle, 51. 
opposition to transfer of pupils to a. 
Sf, 40. 
reasons for their unwillingness to place 
children in a. s., 47. 
suggested data concerning, 50. 
suggested lines of inquiry as to history, 
52, 


136 


Photographs, value in marking mentai de- 
velopment of a. s. pupils, 60. 

Physical abnormalities in children, 
relation to mental, 34. 


Physical condition of pupils, close study 
of, advised, 99. 

Physical defects of a.‘s. pupils, statistics 
of, at Halle, 55. 

Physical development, cooperation of phy- 
sician in a. s. respecting, 53. 
Physical examination of children in schools 

of Halle, 54. 
Physical measurements of pupils in a. s. 
of Halle, 56. 
Plauen, half-yearly reports to parents of 
pupils in a. s., 75. 
questionnaire used for obtaining data 
as to defectives, 40-41. 


Play, its place in the school curriculum, 


their 


93. 
Playgrounds, outline of work in a. s. of 
Halle, 88. 


in connection with a. s., 77. 


Preparation .of teachers for a. s. work, 


general suggestions as to, 116-119. > 


Programmes of a. ss., 81. 

Psychiatry, need for the a. s. physician 
having sound knowledge of, 58. 

Pupils in a. ss., number to a class, 79. 


Questionnaires for procuring data as to 
_ defectives, Brussels, 39. 
Frankfort on the Main, 36. 
Halle, 42. 
Leipzig, 36. 
Mannheim, 44-46. 
Plauen, 40. 
Recesses in a. s., suggestions as to length, 
frequency and purposes of, 83. , 


Records of a. s. pupils, form for keeping, 

suggested by Dr. M. Gorke, 61. 
suggested points to be followed in keep- 
ing, 71. 

Religion, general scope of instruction in, 

in a. s., 84. 
plan of instruction in a. s. of Halle, 
88, 90. 

Religious belief of defectives in a. s., gen- 
eral factors for the teacher’s consid- 
eration, 80. 

Religious instruction of defectives, coop- 
eration, of church authorities in con- 
nection with, 102. 

advice to teachers respecting scope of, 
101. 

“Repeating” or ‘furthering’ classes, 

plan of work of, at Mannheim, 44, 


Retardation of pupils, causes of, 27. 
reasons for, other than mental defi- 
ciency, 31. 
Rewards, use of, instead of punishments 
in a. ss., 98. 
Richter, K., account given by, of founding 
of teachers’ seminary at Rome, 19. 


questionnaires sent out by, at Leipzig 
regarding advancement of former pu- 
pils, 111. 





INDEX. 


Richter, K., statement as to ability of 
defectives to do certain kinds of work, 
105. 

statement from report of, as to rewards 
for employers of defectives, 106. 

suggested form for record of a. s. pupils, 
63. 

Rickoff, Superintendent A. J., reference to 
establishment by, of first American a. 
Sh hel, 

Robinson Crusoe, use of advised as basis 
of instruction in nature study and 
home geography, 85. 

Rémer, A., advice against overloading the 
defective child with religious mate- 
rial, 101. 

Russia, lack of schools for defectives, 20. 


Sanctis, Dr. Sante de, school for defectives 
established by, at Rome, 19. 


reference to the value of works of art 
to a. s. pupils, 98. 
School garden, its inclusion among the 
needs of a. ss., 77. 
outline of work in a. s. of Halle, 88. 
Schoolhouse for the a. s., suggestions as to 
site, equipment, etc., 77. 
School hygiene, necessity for a. s. physi- 
cian having interest in, 58. 
School physician, assistance in securing 
better hygienic conditions, 59. 
duties in a. s. of Halle, 53. 
reference to official yearly report for 
Halle schools, 55. 
required qualifications according to Pro- 
fessor Griesbach, 58. 
register, description of the kind 
used in a. s. of Halle, 61. 
Secondary schools, occurrence of abnormal 
children in, 31. 

Segregation of the weak-minded, reasons 
for, 28. ; 
Sickinger, Dr. A., classification of Mann- 

heim pupils according to abilities, 


School 


43. 
suggestions as to grading in _ schools, 
121, 
Singing, general scope of, in the a. s. course 
of study, 85. 


outline of work in a. s. of Halle, 91. 

Sleeping conditions of children, observation 
by the teacher with respect to ab- 
normal development, 52. 

Social and ethical defects, their general 
occurrence with mental deficiences, 
34. 

Special classes, organization of, at Mann- 
heim, 44. 

Speech correction as practiced by Godt- 
fring in the province of Schleswig- 
Holstein, 87. 

Speech defects, relation of, to backwardness 
of pupils, 33. 

Spiral method of instruction in a. Sss., 
value in the general scheme, 95. 

Spiritual nature of the child, revelation 
through study of physical eondi- 
tions, 29. 


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INDEX. 


Stammering and stuttering, efforts toward 


correcting, followed in Schleswig- 
Holstein, 87. 
Stétzner, Th., assistance in establishing 


section for pedagogical hygiene, 14. 
pamphlet of, on establishment of a. ss., 
13. 

Striimpell, L., statement as to relation of 
therapeutics and pedagogy, 30. 
suggested study by teachers of his Die 

pidagogische Pathologie oder die 
Lehre von den Fehlern der Kinder, 
116. 

Studies, time and order of_each in a. ss., 
82. 

Sweden, status of a. ss., 20. 

Swiss public welfare society, course for 
teachers of special classes, 19. 
Switzerland, status of a. s. instruction, 18. 
Talkativeness as an evidence of deviation 

from the normal, 33. 

Teachers and principals of a. ss., lack of 
training for the work, 114. 
Teachers of the a. s., need of careful study 

by, of individual defectives, 60. 
paramount nature of the teacher’s per- 
sonality, 94. 
reasons for failure of folk-school teachers 
who become, 115. 
the special qualifications necessary, 115. 
text-books suggested for their study, 116. 
Technical work in a. ss., 81. 
Teeth of children, relation to proper de- 
velopment, 57. 
Text-book for a. s. teachers, suggestion of 
leading ones for study, 116. 


O 






OF THE 





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137 


Text-books for use in a. s., present lack of, 
86. 

Trades, the training of defectives for, 105. 

Training schools for teachers, discussion of 
their relation to a. s. question as to 
preparation of teachers, 117. 

Training of teachers for defectives, estab- 
lishment of courses by the Swiss 
public welfare society, 19. 

establishment of seminary in Rome, 19. 

Transfer of pupils to a. s., need of careful 

consideration on the part of the 


teacher, 32. 
from “repeating ’’ classes at Mannheim, 
46. 
United States, status of a. s. instruction, 
22, 
Weak-minded children, proportion to popu- 
lation, 79. 


“* Weak-mindedness,” determination of what 
constitutes, 32. 

Wehrhan, Doctor, first president of the 
German national association of a. ss., © 
LT, 

Weygandt, W., advice against overloading 
the defective child with religious 
material, 101. 

Witte, J. H., opinion as to a. ss., 27. 

Work of children after school hours, rela- 
tion to vitality, 52. 

Workshops of a. s., general suggestions as 
to,.. TZ. 

Women teachers of a. s., desirability of 
their employment in some cases, 118. 

their employment in England, 21. 


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